Snow White and Blood Red
by louderthansirens
Summary: The BAU team investigates a series of double kidnappings and child murders in and around Chicago. But profiling the unsub is more difficult than they thought, especially when half of the team is kidnapped as well, with Reid being sick on top... Right, and then there's the blizzard. Mentioning of drug use - not Reid - and child abuse.
1. Prologue

Hii, guys :D I'm glad you found my little FF!

Anyways, just a little information before you start:  
This is my first CM FanFic ever. That's why I appreciate every little help from you guys in form of reviews or even PM's, it doesn't matter. I'm kinda worried, that the characters might be not enough in character; also english isn't my mother tongue and if there's something that looks strange, please tell me right away. As another note, I have never been to Chicago in my whole life and I hope Google Maps is the right source to use for that :)  
Nope, I don't have a beta-reader x)

Disclaimer: The BAU team and the main idea of Criminal Minds belongs to their rightful owners - only the unsub, the children, witnesses and the case idea are mine.

Have fun!

* * *

_"[...] Rose Red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow White sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her house-work, or read to her when there was nothing to do._

_ The two children were so fond of each other that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said, "We will not leave each other" Rose-red answered, "Never so long as we live" [...]"  
**- from Snow White and Rose Red; Grimm Brothers**_

* * *

Her blue eyes shine watery when she looks at me, pleading, screaming, crying. She starts to kick around helplessly.

_You can't move. Stop it. It's no good. Stop it, now_, I scream; it sounds so far, far away and quiet.

She won't stop.

I slap her face. I can't listen to this screaming anymore. It's piercing. Like nails on a chalkboard. It hurts. My ears hurt. My head hurts. My heart hurts.

_I don't want to do this anymore._

_But I wanted to love you, I wanted you to be my dearest._

_Don't you understand?_

She's sobbing quietly.

_We could've had so much fun. But you're not the right one, I guess. It shouldn't be._ I can't help smiling sadly as I take the syringe.

She's still shaking, kicking around, trying to loosen the belts around her arms and legs, it's useless. _They're stronger than you, little, weak bird._

_My bird..._

I stroke her soft, dark brown hair. Her hair is perfect. Her eyes, her nose, her mouth, even her height. Her body is perfect. _You look perfect._

_But your personality, oh, my dear..._

_Shhh, stop crying. Soon it will be over. Don't worry. It won't hurt._

_Shh, shh._

She's relaxing, her beautiful, blue eyes look dazed to the wall. I take a last glance at them and finally close them. I don't need to see them becoming dull and dead. Grey. Dry.

I stroke her hair one last time.

I turn around.

The boy looks upset.

_Aww, cutie, did this scare you?_, I ask. I can't mask my hate for this despicable being. For this creature. _Did this fucking scare you?_

I throw the syringe to the ground where it explodes in shatters of glass. He jumps. There are drying tears on his cheeks. But he doesn't start crying again.

I get closer.

_So, little boy? What do you think, how scared my Anne was, when she was killed?_

He doesn't answer.

_Well, then, cutie. Let's get started._

* * *

The next day two children's bodies were found in the area of Chicago, Illinois.

A little girl, Jennifer M., 8 years old, lay on a pile of dead autumn leaves deep in the Thatcher Woods. The couple Matthew H. and Amanda T. had stopped at the side of the street as Matthew had to throw up; When they took a walk into the forest to calm his stomach down, they found the body. Amanda described the girl as made-up like a doll or like a copy of Snow White as she had dark hair and wore a long white dress. Matthew couldn't talk to the police because he was still feeling too sick.

Almost at the same time her brother, the 9-year-old boy Robert M., was discovered in a construction area in the middle of the city by some teenagers who walked around there - unauthorized. They receive psychological aftercare. At first they thought, he must have been crushed by the metal framework he was lying under, assuming from the amount of blood around him.

The autopsy findings might prove another cause of death though.


	2. Warm on one side

_"Wake up", someone said forcefully._

No._ He weakly shook his head from side to side. He wanted nothing more than just a little rest, a little sleep... He'd already done so much. He'd already given so much. Everything hurt, everything felt sore. His arms, his legs, his back, his head, everything. _Leave me... Leave me alone_, he said._

Let me sleep. I want my sleep, please-

_"Come on. Please, sir. I really need you to wake up now."_

_Why- why would the cat call him "sir"...? He stroked and patted its head with a little smile. Silly cat. Stop it. Go away._

_"Sir. Mister. I don't even know."_

_The cat's voice was female. It grew more and more impatient._

_"You really need to wake up."_

_Suddenly - or has it been like this all the time? - everything felt funny. He looked around. The environment, the room ... was funny. Colors twirled and wirled around, a stormy sea, the ground wasn't stable anymore._

_He felt like he was Alice in Wonderland. Or, not like the girl, but as a guy. _

_Actually he simply felt like he landed in Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. _

_Far back in his mind a voice suspected he might be high or drugged, but he didn't really care. It was already difficult enough to think like... that. And "that", whatever it was, alreay didn't make sense. He wanted his mind back, his normal mind. It was awful. He didn't understand a thing, to be honest, and it was scary._

_The long, elegant cat strutted around him, around his thin waste while he was sitting on the ground, on the dusty ground, the dust shimmering in all the colors of the rainbow; she somehow managed to climb on his shoulder, stayed there, balanced around his neck like she was a scarf and continued to rub her head on the side of his head, on his temples, repetitively, soft, without falling down, without stumbling._

_He didn't know his shoulders were broad enough for a cat this size._

_He felt the cat's brown fur brushing his cheeks softly, his bruised cheeks, her tail was kind of petting his hair, like he was the cat not like the cat was the cat. So dizzy..._

_Gradually the colors got crazier and crazier, the cat faster and faster. He felt sick. He felt like throwing up, but he couldn't move. The colors flooded his mind, flooded his brain, everything was a big, fat mess and it hurt his head, it stabbed his eyes, he closed them._

_He felt the cat fumbling on his clothes, grabbing something with her teeth. It klicked quietly. Hopefully she wouldn't bite him. But she seemed to be nice. Somehow he knew, she was no danger. Not as the twirling colors were. Instinctively, he knew._

_He still couldn't move._

_Something klicked again, klicked quietly as it fell to the ground._

_She sat upright, feeling lighter on his shoulder than before, leaned down to his ear. He felt her warm breath. He smelled no fish. Cats liked fish. She was a cat. _

_His thoughts became just more absurd and he felt sicker, but it wouldn't stop, not even with his eyes closed._

_Nice. A cat with brushed teeth or-_

_He heard the cat's breathing, shaking._

_Still no fish._

_She wanted to say something? Really? What was she going to say?_

**"SSA Dr. Spencer Reid, I need you to wake up right now."**

_What the-_

He opened his eyes, crushed down by darkness.

"Oh, boy, I thought, you'd never wake up", someone whispered, sounding as in a rush. As if the person wasn't breathing when he or she talked. He couldn't see her.

He felt someone grab his shoulders, squeezing, shaking his body weakly.

"I really have to tell you something. Something important. Something happened, okay, you- you have to listen to me, Mr. Reid- You gotta- Mr. Reid, come on, I need you to listen. I thought you just woke-"

Reid shifted uncomfortably, sighing. The girl became silent, looking at him, not noticing that he was already awake, waiting.

"...Ha- Haley, right?", he assumed softly, recognizing her right away when his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, a little glance at her being enough.

The girl was sitting next to him. She nodded eagerly as she watched him positioning his slender body against the concrete wall. Reid felt it sharply on his skin, piercing through the thin fabric.

He didn't look like FBI, Haley thought. FBI was what she had read on his badge to find out his name. SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. Well, he didn't look like she had_ imagined_ FBI. But she didn't mention it.

Slowly the agent started to focus. He remembered... she was one of the kidnapped girls. There was a photo... her face on it...

_Haley Peterson, born 12th December 2000, went missing on 5th January 2012; blue eyes, brown hair; wore jeans, yellow rubber boots, a blue sweater and a black jacket on the day missing; went to see a friend; parents Melissa and Thomas Peterson; no other living relatives._

They were looking for the unsub that had kidnapped her. Reid... and his team... they were looking for her. He shook his head.

The team... The others...

He looked up, a little too fast. The girl seemed to be fine, staring at him with that big eyes. "Are you okay?", he whispered. "Did the kidnapper hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired, I guess", she whispered back.

"Alright." He nodded. As it was to be expected.

There was just- How did he get here? How... There was just too much going on right now, although actually nothing was going on at the moment. His head was spinning. "Could you just- Could I just settle my mind for a minute? I'm still- uhm, kind of out of it, you maybe noticed... I need a moment, alright?"

"Alright." Haley nodded again and waited, simply sitting there, her knees up to her chest and crossed arms on her knees. "Take your time." Obviously a puzzled agent was not of much use, so there was no problem relaxing for a short time. He didn't know yet that the unsub would only come back later, when the sun rose, so they had a bit time for themselves.

"I'll be quick", the tall, skinny guy promised and sat up a little more, cautiously straightening his back. He glanced around with his deep brown eyes still half shut, blinked, needed to wake up.

It was almost completely dark. There was even a very little window, high up on the other side of the room, letting in some light from the streem lamp, but it was impossible to reach it or to go through, even for a kid like Haley. As a consequence most of the things in the room - and the small room was stuffed with things, Reid figured out that much - were difficult to recognize or to notice. Probably a cellar room, a storage room, something like that. The unsub didn't seem to have a lot of space to keep the children.

And Reid didn't have a lot of space for stretching out his long legs. Actually he didn't want to concentrate on himself right now. As far as the profiler remembered he got quite a damage on his body, from a fight. From a fight with the unsub. He remembered tumbling upside down and then- then he got dizzy and stumbled and suddenly he felt really weak...

_Reid, damnit, wake up, you gotta concentrate. This is a case. People need to be saved. You need to stay awake._

_Okay. Alright._ He shook his head.

Next thing he noticed was that it was ice cold. The window was open and let in the winter wind from outside. Most probably there were no heaters or something like that in here; if they were lucky they had blankets. Reid already felt the chills on his arms and on the back of his neck. It was important to keep the girl warm.

Right, the girl.

Why was it so difficult to concentrate? Had he asked himself this question before?

"Hey, Haley... I haven't had the chance to ask you before... How long have you been in here? My team and I, we were looking for you." His throat felt scratchy and his voice broke a few times, but if Haley noticed, she didn't react.

"I'm... I'm pretty sure about three days", she responded calmly, waiting for the next question.

"Then, that means we have about... 8th or 9th January", he resumed, rather talking to himself than to Haley.

The girl sat there in a t-shirt too big for her, on the plain floor, saying nothing, her arms hugging herself because of the cold; but all in all she seemed to be unnaturally relaxed to him. How could she stay so brave and calm? She was only about 11 years old...

As far as Reid knew she hadn't been abused by the unsub, he repeated in his mind. None of the girls they found were. His drifting thoughts were pulled back to reality as he noticed a little movement in the girl's body.

The young man shook his head, mentally shouting at himself for his ignorance. "Do you need a blanket?"

The girl simply nodded. "But there's none around."

"Are you sure?"

"I searched for three days. I am sure, Mr. Reid", she answered confidently, through shaking teeth, nodding.

She's been freezing in here for three days and nights. He swallowed. "Of course. I'm sorry. My fault." Speaking became hard. AT least the coughing had calmed down.

How long could he have been in here? He remembered reaching the suspect's residence on... 8th January. Noon probably. Must have been here about twelve hours. But he didn't really know. He was not sure, if he even wanted to think about it, since a few moments later this assumption didn't seem quite right anymore.

Anyway, he thought. Reid decided to put off his jacket. It was thin, but it was better than that little fabric of nothing that the girl wore. It was more important to keep her healthy. Kids get so much more easily sick than adults, he reasoned.

"Here you are." Reid shakily handed the jacket to Haley who thankfully accepted it. It was so big, it looked just as well like a dark blanket around her fragile body.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Reid."

"Call me Spencer." His voice almost disappeared in the air, it was so quiet. If she hadn't seen his lips moving, she might have just imagined it.

"Thanks, Spencer."

He weakly smiled at her. In fact, he wanted to go on sleeping, but although the pain in his head and in his back and wherever in his body started to become stronger, he wasn't sure if that was a good idea. So he kept sitting there, with his back on the wall staring into the dark.

Haley still sat awkwardly next to him, waiting for more questions. When she figured he wouldn't ask anything at that moment, she started speaking herself. Somehow she found it was strange that the agent wasn't reacting to anything. Shouldn't he be jumping up and searching for a way to get out? To contact the others? Anything? Had he already checked himself, if he had his gun or whatever agents take with them? She swallowed. Something was definitely not alright here.

"Spencer."

"Hm?"

"Do you remember... what happened? Before you fell asleep?", she nervously asked.

"I... I don't know", the young man answered honestly. "I really don't know. A little bit. Hopefully I'll regain my full memory soon. I always rely on it... Can you tell me what happened? Or, you already woke me to tell me something, didn't you?"

She nodded, though he couldn't see it. He had closed his eyes as the headaches started becoming too bad. The throbbing had wandered from the back of his head towards the front, laying on his temples. From time to time he cooled them on the wall.

"You fought against Max..."

"Max." That would be the unsub's name. Reid digged in the back of his head; if the suspect they had visited was called Max, he should remember.

"Mm-hmm."

"Okay." He had fought against the unsub. That explains why he hurt so much. He's never been good in near combat fights. He's actually never been good at any combat, he thought ironically.

"But... Max was stronger." He chuckled lightly, but Haley didn't seem to notice. Of course, he was stronger. Reid maked a mental note to participate in some self-defense-class or something when he came out of here...

"It's a pity, you know? You almost made it. Anyways, I watched you fighting. Through the key hole." Haley nodded towards the direction. Reid needed to check that door later. When he could stand up safely again.

The girl went silent.

"What is it?", Reid asked slurrily, noticing this himself and hoping Haley didn't hear it. How could she relly on him when he was like... that? Useless? She didn't need that.

Haley inhaled sharply. "I think you should know... Max had a knife. I didn't dare to check on you. When you were sleeping. I thought you might need the rest."

"... Oh." Reid was a bit surprised. That might explain the pains in his stomach. Why had he not checked this himself by now?

Slowly he pulled up his sweater, already finding some traces of injuries on it as it was torn at some places, but his body wasn't too badly injured. A few scratches, not too deep, nothing he couldn't handle. Couldn't be too bad if he didn't think of it before.

He noticed Haley's glance. "Don't worry. It's gonna be okay." She didn't look too sure. "It hurts a little", Reid admitted. "But it just needs some time. Go on", he whispered.

"Okay." The girl leaned back. "Max just kicked the gun out of your hands, ran towards you, knocked you over like nothing, you were like folded in half or something, like a sandwich... threw you through half of the room. It looked awful." She shuddered at the thought. "I think, that knocked you out. Then, I saw you both coming near... Max carried you and you were thrown in here. I have no idea why."

"... It makes no sense, does it?", Reid croaked. Why would the unsub keep him?

"No, it doesn't."

"Have you seen any other FBI agents when you looked out there? A man and a woman? They... They're stronger than me." He looked at the ground. If they were to fight the unsub they should have won, shouldn't they?

Haley looked up. "I don't think so. I heard some noise and then ran to the door. I only saw you."

They fell silent for a couple of minutes, staring into the dark. Where were Morgan and Prentiss...? Were they captured here as well? Or did they make it outside in time? No... if that was the case, the unsub would have been arrested long ago.

His head felt heavy. Reid needed to stay awake.

"I hate the dark", he whispered, wincing a little. His voice had become total crap by now. His throat protested against every word he said. He felt so damn cold.

Haley hurt hearing it. Haley hurt to see how troubling it was for that tall Doctor-Agent-FBI-guy to breathe in and out and how difficult it was for him to keep his eyes open. How difficult to suppress his trembling, so she wouldn't worry about it. He really didn't succeed in that.

For everyone, no matter if profiler or not, it was easy to see the young man didn't feel quite good. Haley wasn't sure about what she was supposed to do.

Was it better to let him sleep? Or keep him awake?

"You know, Mr. Reid, you look like a guy who talks a lot, when it comes to something he's nerdy about", she began. She had started calling him Mr. again, but he didn't correct it again.

Reid shrugged weakly. How would she know that by his looks? "That's right."

Suddenly she sat up and looked at him seriously, right in the eyes. "I need to talk to you, okay, but you won't answer me. You need to keep your voice as long as you can." She waited for a response shortly and as he only frowned, but didn't respond, she continued. "I see you're not feeling well, Mr. Reid. You might want to keep up your image, cause I'm young and kidnapped and, yes, scared, but it won't do good to you, I can see it. And this is far worse." He looked sympathetically at her. "I can see it, you being... down." She paused to see his reaction.

Reid swallowed, but didn't answer; instead he estimated when the sun would be up again. He hated the dark. He hated not seeing everything around him, hated feeling insecure, not knowing if something creeps up somewhere right now. Yeah, maybe he was kind of afraid. But he wasn't going to respond to that.

"I can't get you falling sick on me, you know?" All of a sudden Reid felt the girl gently pressing her body against his side, carefully hugging his middle section, trying not to hurt him even more. "At least you get warm on one side." Reid was far too perplex to reply right away, not having expected anything like this.

She seemed to be immune to the Reid effect.

They stayed awkwardly silent.

Reid cleared his throat. "Thanks..." Before the girl could jump up and complain, Reid continued. "I hate to break your rules, Haley, but I need to ask you something."

"... Okay."

"Alright, listen: My team created a profile of the unsub- of the kidnapper. The way Max acts, how the children are... treated, everything, we use these facts to characterize the person. Unfortunately I..." Reid paused. "I can't remember most of it. You really could help me, so I can find out how we can catch the unsub and get out of here. You need to tell me everything you can remember about your kidnapper."


	3. Act like you're sleeping

Thanks for alerting to giderasia, elphatraGuin and IwKa! Hope you like that one :)

* * *

_5th January 2012_

_"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." _

**_- Carl Reiner_**

* * *

It had been unusually cold as Reid awoke this morning.

He followed his common morning routine, bathroom, taking a shower, putting on the clothes he had chosen the night before, brushing his teeth, then to the kitchen, brewing the coffee, staring at the wall for a little while. Yawned. Still eyes half shut he reached for one of his favorite cups, realizing he needed to clean up the dishes again. While the coffee machine worked loudly he wandered back to the bedroom, but when he arrived there he had forgotten what he had planned to do there.

Doors mark the end of a thought process in human's minds, he remembered; it's like starting to read a totally new book. That's why people often forget what they were going to do while wandering around in their apartment. Like him.

A shrill beep from the kitchen told him the water has finished boiling, so he shuffled back. Next routine. Filling the cup with the hot water, few spoons of the instant coffee, sugar, sugar, sugar. And sugar. The comforting smell filled the air. Familiar. Home.

It was time to really wake up now.

Something outside the window caught his eyes, looked kinda strange, but he couldn't recognize it from far away. It... moved.

A short look at the thermometer on the window pane told him it was only 20°*****, now at 8 a.m. - statistics said in January the lowest average temperate in Quantico was 26°******. So that was it in front of the window... snow. Not much, though. Reid ran his fingers through his hair - still damp - and stretched his long back, slowly, carefully, for he wouldn't spill the coffee.

The young agent was already a little late.

Reid continued to stare at the white flakes in front of him, twirling in the wind, reflecting the orange street lamp light, hypnotizing. He didn't really like snow. He didn't like the cold, the ice, the slippery roads. There were significantly more traffic accidents in winter. People get sick more easily.

The dullness, the silence created when the snow ate the sound. The white, milky sky. The blinding blankets on the fields. Or in cities rather the grey mud, wetting your socks and the end of your pants.

There had been practically no winter in Vegas, when he had been living there, in his childhood, with his mum and his dad... In winter it's been colder than usual of course, but snow was always very rare, pretty much non-existent. The first time he had seen snow was when they had visited friends far away, in the north. Even then he wasn't so enthusiastic about it. It was unfamiliar. Unpleasant.

He felt a shiver running down his spine.

Almost invisible fluffy spots fell down from the still dark clouded sky to slowly become drops of water on the ground. But after all, January was the coldest month of them all, so it was just normal.

Reid absently took a sip and almost dropped the cup in what felt like surprise, when he burned his tongue. Half of the liquid swapped over the rim of the cup and fell on the tiled floor, a tiny puddle, sprinkling his socks. "... Great."

How long had he been dreaming around? Look at the clock. 8:20. Subway arrived in 10 minutes - Minus 7 minutes walking, made 3 minutes time to clean up the mess, get his stuff and finally getting ready to leave the house.

Reid almost dropped the cup a second time, when all of a sudden his phone on the table rang deafeningly. He shortly froze, couldn't decide what to do first - put down the cup or answer the phone? He grabbed the mobile.

"JJ?" His voice jumped in worry. "What is it?" He hurried over to the sink and let the cup slip in, grabbed the nearest towel he could find and wiped up the mess on the ground, all while processing what his colleague explained to him on the phone. "Alright. I'll be there."

He had actually wished for a day at the office, since the last case had been extremely exhausting and had just ended yesterday - a serial killer had been on the run at the border to Canada and they had been outside in the cold for days.

But you don't always get what you want.

Awesome morning.

(***** - 6,6° Celsius

****** - 3,3° Celsius)

* * *

Almost an hour later Reid set up on the plane, out of breath and his hair wet because of the melting snow on it, and the first thing he did was getting the second cup of coffee this day. The rest of the team had already assembled on the seats; from time to time he heard JJ and Prentiss chatting indistinctively. Hotch was the only one who still was away.

With the fresh coffee Reid walked in and sat down right in front of Morgan, who, like usually, had his headphones on.

"Hey, kid", he greeted him, immediately noticing the stressed-out look.

"Hey", Reid shortly answered back, looking out of the window, at the now more-than-ever-hated snow. On his way here he had slipped like three times on the ice on the streets and his shoes got wet and his hair and actually everything and he hated it. His ears felt like they were going to simply fall off and his eyes got irritated by the tornado-like wind. He just wanted his damn cup of coffee. Then everything would be fine again. As if to prove this point he took a sip. It was a little too hot, but it felt nicer than the scratching he felt while swallowing. His throat had started hurting this morning. And he forgot his scarf in the hurry of coming to the airport.

"How you doing?", Morgan asked, one eyebrow lifted up, his headphones put down, examined Reid. "Sure, the weather's being rough on you."

The younger shrugged and took another sip. If he could've he would have probably chugged the whole thing and got another one. "I hate snow", he simply answered, now looking back at the other agent.

"I can only imagine, Vegas-boy." Morgan grinned widely.

Before Reid could inform him about how the climatic situation in Las Vegas was a lot more convenient than in Quantico, Hotch rushed in, his permanently serious face looking even more serious, which was like a sign to get the seat belts fastened.

* * *

Not much later the plane was stable and JJ could start explaining their case. As soon as she got the consent she stood up and handed filed documents to each team member. The agent strictly came to the point. "The police department of Chicago ordered us to work on a series of child kidnappings and murders in and around Chicago." She sat down again and opened her own folder. "The latest victims were Jennifer, 8 years old, and Robert Moore, 9."

"So the unsub is interested in siblings?", Prentiss assumed.

"Seems like it, but not necessarily", JJ explained. "Jennifer got adopted into the family, when Mrs. Moore got infertile. Robert was an only child before." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, Jennifer was found in the forest; she didn't show any signs of abuse or violence, instead she was dressed neatly and had make-up on." The photos would illustrate enough explicit details.

"And her brother?", Morgan asked.

The blonde agent swallowed. "Well... He was found on a construction site in the middle of the city and the kids there, who found him, they thought he must have been stroked dead by the frameworks that buried him. It was barely possible to recognize him at all."

"How do we know he was murdered and didn't die in an accident?", Rossi wanted to know, leaning back into the chair.

"Autopsy proved that he's been abused for a longer period of time, some days probably. He had several cuts and bruises, some even hand-shaped. There were also strangulation marks on his neck." JJ shifted. "Besides that he might've been drugged."

"Do they already know what with?", Hotch asked.

JJ shook her head. "I've got no report yet. But they might be finished when we arrive."

"Sign of anger", Morgan resumed. "He only feels guilty about the girls, but he hates the boys."

"Wait, how was the girl killed again, JJ?", Reid asked, chin in his hand.

"They assume she was poisoned or drugged as well."

"Maybe it's a team. A couple or something. You know, looking at the way the children were killed, it's like one is into girls and the other into boys", Prentiss suggested, shrugging.

"When have they been kidnapped? I mean, were they kidnapped at the same time?", Reid wondered.

"Well, they weren't together 24/7, so it's not possible to claim the unsub took them just both at the same time, as he saw them. But it was definitely the same day they disappeared", JJ answered.

"He knows them. Or he watches them for some days." Hotch spoke out what everyone thought. "What about previous victims?"

The blonde agent looked up. "There were some similarities in the victimology. The girls were always brunette with blue eyes and they were always found in the woods. The boys weren't placed at the same location, but they were all inside the city. All the children were about the same age, 8 to 10, and there have been always couples of siblings. There were no other similar reports in other cities up to now. The children have been missing for exact three days, the following kidnappings happened in the period of one day."

"So, the unsub's still around and searching. When were Jennifer and Robert found?", Hotch asked.

JJ shook her head. "Up in the early morning, about 4 or 5 hours ago, I guess."

"Alright." Hotch closed his folder and looked at his watch. "We're landing soon. When we go down, I'd like you, Prentiss and Reid, to check the final autopsy reports and find out about any conspicuities. Rossi and JJ, you go meet the local police officer and talk to him about the kidnappings; also ask about witnesses and suspects. Morgan, you'll come with me to find out about the places the children were found."

Right that moment JJ's mobile rang. The others didn't have to ask what was going on as her expression was enough to understand. She nodded - "Alright. We're already on our way. No press releases until we arrive." - and put back the phone.

"Two children went missing this morning."

* * *

_Now_

Some memories already began coming back, before Haley started talking, but Reid still didn't remember the essential part, the final, complete profile. A heavy feeling crawled up in his stomach. A noise in his ears. A foul taste.

There had been something wrong with it. With the profile. They had made a mistake. Huge. But he didn't know how, when, why... If he at least could remember how he got in here. He knew that Morgan and Prentiss were with him. And they wanted to question a suspect, right?

No, no, no... It wasn't a suspect. They came here to talk to a witness._ A witness_. Who finally turned out to be the unsub. Great. He couldn't remember anything apart that.

The agent wished there was something to quicken his thought processes, anything... If he only knew a face or just... Yep, it was awful. The only thing he could ever possibly rely on simply decided to black out for a while.

Reid looked up, took a deep breath. "You need to tell me everything you know about the unsub. Does he have anything remarkable about his looks? Anything special about the way he talks?", he kept on asking.

Haley shifted uncomfortably, her eyes looking around in anxiety as if someone could hear them. Something had changed her behaviour.

"Does he watch us right now?", the agent wanted to know, whispering. Cameras? But it was a rapid change, cameras would have been here all the time. What is wrong all of a sudden? What was it? Just a minute ago she seemed to be fine.

Damn, how dumb could he be, thinking a 11-year-old girl, kidnapped and kept in a storage room, alone, far away from home, scared to death, cold, hungry, tired, could be just_ fine_? He felt like slamming his head into the wall. _Concentrate, concentrate._

Then he heard the steps, approaching. Getting louder. The unsub shuffled. Unregularly. Weak.

Reid's eyes widened.

"Max is already coming back", Haley whispered, in panic her voice lightly jumping. "Already. Too early. ... comes just in the morning... What ... gonna do..." The girl hid her face in her knees, the long hair falling around her body like a soft blanket. She started shaking.

Reid was too confused to form any understandable sentences. His throat scratched. His heart was racing.

"Act like you're sleeping", Haley hissed, her breath shaking, cutting the words to pieces. "You won't get punished. You only get punished when you're awake. It's checking. Wants to know if we're really sleeping. If not, you get punished." With that she literally threw herself on the ground and closed her eyes, with all her might trying to seem as innocent and harmless as possible.

The young man was still in shock, a little too slow to react, the words poured into his ears like water, deformated, dull, somewhere mixing with the noise.

"Lay down, Mr. Reid. She's coming back. Max is coming back."


	4. Prentiss

And have here a little shout-out for new readers! Thanks soo much to schotti, maryhell, Kjkit, Livion and KASEY64. I'm so glad you lovely people found here :) (And shout-out to my friend Eva, who's been helping me with out some plot problems :D)

* * *

_What?_

„What do you mean, 'she'?", Reid gasped, talking way too fast.

The profile. That's what made it seem off. It was a female unsub.

Haley had no time to explain anything else because the steps were approaching steadily, even rhythmically, louder and louder, every time he thought it was like a bomb exploding. Finally, almost too late, the agent lay down, the floor was uncomfortable and hard and creepy and crawling into his skin, he didn't want to think about it, closed his eyes, _stay still, stay still._

Listened. Carefully.

_Don't fall asleep_, he thought to himself, again and again, like a song on repeat.

It would be so easy, just slipping into a dream, like before, calming his dry eyes, numbing the pain in his body, being far, far away, not having to handle this freaking nightmare.

_Stay awake. For Haley. For Prentiss and Morgan._

She, she, she. Why a woman? Technically there had been a chance, of course, but nobody even thought about it. And now she could so easily just take them over, FBI agents knocked out. How did she do it? Especially, how did she handle Morgan?

The others, were they still here? How could he be so sure they didn't leave him in here, on his own?

_No, no, no, don't even dare thinking about that,_ he shook his head. If they did, they had a reason. _They would never leave you alone, you know that. Calm down._

Haley's breathing was even, quiet, soothing, no signs of trembling, no signs of fear. Reid tried to settle his own breath, adapt to her. It was hard.

The steps had stopped.

Everything was so slow. Too many thoughts.

He swallowed.

Someone fumbled on the door, the doorhandle squeeked, she, the unsub didn't care if someone could wake up from this. Maybe she actually wanted someone to be awake.

You won't get punished when you're asleep, Haley had said.

Was that the right way to put it?

A ray of light fell into the room, directly onto Reid's face. For all one is worth he suppressed opening his eyes, looking at the unsub, maybe then he could remember what had happened, _no, don't do it, you need to stay with Haley, you don't need any kind of punishment, whatever the unsub might think it would be. No, stay like that. Don't you dare it. Don't look, not under any circumstances._

She was breathing heavily. What if she was old?

No, that really doesn't fit the profile or the part of the profile he could remember at least.

Shortly after the door was opened, he heard it being closed again. The steps departed. Not much, not far away. Still close enough. Still here with them.

Reid sat up, too fast, body tensed, staring at the door, massive, iron, staring and listening. Where did she go? Up? Down? Hadn't Haley said something about stairs? Why did his head still feel like it was filled with cotton?

Stiff in his movements Reid hushed forward, crouched right at the door, the keyhole, almost invisible just letting so little light through it, inside the storage room, but when he looked through he almost got blinded by the bright lamps outside. He only identified some kind of hallway, on the right another door, same design, and straight forward the open door leading to the stairs. Right.

They were in the basement. It was good to know at least one little thing he had supposed had been right.

The steps, the sounds were still there but he couldn't see a figure, couldn't see her. Reid felt the back of his neck tingling. When he tried to look to the left, there was not much to see, the other room wasn't close enough; he heard a door squeeking, exactly like 'his', but there was nothing to see.

Of course, the second child. She would keep it here as well.

Sounds got louder. Voices. One voice, a child crying, whimpering, incoherently, indistinctively. The unsub didn't answer, at least not loudly enough for Reid to hear. She was about two or three doors away, he guessed.

Then another voice, stronger, female, adult. Slightly shaking, only for Reid, being exercised in interogations, noticeable. Reid felt his heart beating faster, racing, it was so strong he irrationally worried the unsub could hear it, too. He stopped breathing, clenched his hand around the handle.

He knew her, he knew who was here with him. He couldn't decide to be happy or shocked about it.

„Don't touch him."

_Prentiss._

* * *

"So, she was indeed drugged", Prentiss stated, looking up from the girl's body at the forensic pathologist, Mr. O'Connor.

He nodded, waving around with a pen in his hand. "Yes, it was also the cause of death; the murderer used a barbiturate, probably sodium thiopental, it's being used a lot; after that pancuronium bromide, which stopped her breathing." O'Connor pointed at a small puncture on the girl's chest.

"To me this looks like a death penalty procedure", Reid whispered. "Do you think she felt anything?"

O'Connor shrugged. "If he was doing it right, what I hope, she probably didn't feel it, no. But there are always chances of complications."

"The unsub must have come in contact with this medicine - working at a hospital or even in jail himself. We need to check if there are any reported thefts."

The pathologist finally put the blanket over Jennifer's still body.

"What about her brother, Robert?", Prentiss hushed forward, following O'Connor to the second table in the room. He lifted the blanket, but left the boy's face covered.

"You've probably seen the photos", he assumed, looking at the profilers. "His head got the heaviest damage. The other wounds were caused three or two days before he died, when I look at how much it has already healed." He put the blanket down again. "The cause of death was a blunt force trauma on his head."

"So he wasn't drugged?", Reid asked.

The pathologist shook his head. "He was, actually, but it wasn't the same drug the girl got. He was given common medicine, sleeping pills, headache pills and so on, but way too much. Even morphine." Prentiss looked over to Reid, but didn't notice any reaction. "At the same time he knew what he did", the pathologist continued. "Children can be easily overdosed, but he knew how and more importantly how much he could use on him without having him dying. I'm sure the boy felt it working. Other than being abused and drugged, he didn't get any food or water."

"But the girl did?"

"Yes. Not much, but yes."

"And the children before were treated the exact same way?", Prentiss wanted to know.

"The exact same way." O'Connor repeated, not looking up.

The agents looked at each other in agreement. "Alright, thank you very much."

* * *

When they had heard about the new kidnappings, some plans had to be changed. Instead of investigating the locations the children's bodies were found, Hotch and Morgan immediately visitied the police station.

JJ was the first to talk to the sheriff. "Hello, Mr. Hutton, we're from the BAU; my name is Jennifer Jareau, these are Supervisory Special Agents Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi and Derek Morgan."

The sheriff shook everyone's hand. "Hello. I wished I could say it's good to see you..." He ran his hand through his short, starting to become thin, brown hair. "But I can gratefully welcome you."

"I understand", Hotch simply said, strictly coming to the point. "Who has gone missing?"

Hutton nodded, leading the agents to another room. The office was working at full blast, everyone was walking around, here and there, back and forth, it was loud and busy. The kidnappings were not the only crimes having to be dealt with in Chicago. The business reminded JJ of an ant colony.

"We're short-staffed", Hutton explained, when he noticed JJ's look at the crowded hall.

A few moments later they entered a small room, dominated by a white board, filling half the space. No one was working in here. On the board some policemen had already collected most of the information on the case, names, pictures, dates, abnormalities. In the middle there were two big pictures, each of a girl and a boy, the only ones that haven't been labelled with 'dead' yet. The sheriff nodded again.

"Paula Richards, 9 years old, and Billie Grant, 10 years old", Hutton read aloud.

"They're not siblings?", Derek asked, obviously confused.

"No. Not at all. That's what's been bugging me, too", Hutton admitted, scratching his head. "They didn't know each other at all; from different neighborhoods, on different schools... We couldn't find the matching fact yet."

"If there_ is_ a matching fact", Morgan said.

"He's becoming impatient. He needs them faster and he's taking more risks", Hotch said. _Damn_. "He stopped watching the children, but now he just takes them with him as he sees them. He probably knows we're after him." Hotch looked at the wall, back at the white board. If he kidnaps the kids faster, the periods becoming shorter, he's going to kill them faster.

That moment his phone rang.

"Prentiss, what have you got?"

* * *

_Now_

"Don't you dare touching him", Prentiss repeated, but it already sounded weaker. Protectively she positioned herself in front of the boy's body, he was clinging onto her t-shirt, shaking, shaking so much. Just like Reid she had given her jacket to the child, trying to save him from the cold.

The unsub was only visible as a shadow, the lights behind her shining so, so bright, making her looking holier than Prentiss prefered. She felt strange, as if her limbs were not really belonging to her, like she was about to fall apart, like an old doll, wasting.

Max didn't say a word. Stood there and stared. She had something in her hand, but Prentiss couldn't recognize it. Eyesight got blurry.

She was trapped, she had no chance to escape if she was going to go on like this. It wouldn't do any good. She had to get out of here, save herself and the kids and Morgan and Reid, whom she worried about. If she remembered right he was alone when they got knocked out. And he had been sick with a flu or something.

She shook her head, focusing.

Prentiss looked up, tensed herself, told the boy to let go of her, so, so quietly, but he heard it and did as he was told, backed off.

Then she jumped up, pushing off the ground, for a moment she was flying closely over the floor, collided with Max' legs. the unsub screamed as her legs were bended painfully.

Reid winced at the noise and the sudden movement, when both the women slipped over the hallway, something fell to the floor, the boy started crying, defeaning, suddenly Haley was by his side, trying to have a look at the scene, hurrily asked what happened, Reid coughed, breathing too fast, pulling the doorhandle, pushing the door, all while the women were fighting just a few feet away.

The agent groped for the gun in his holster, of course she had taken it from him, and from Prentiss and from Morgan, he looked around in the room, now that his eyes were used to the light it was way too dark to see anything anymore; and Max wouldn't have left a thing in the room that could help them get out, he could be sure about that. She was too organized to let something like this happen, as far off as it may sound.

When he looked back outside the noises had dimmed down. But the women have disappeared from his eyesight. Haley looked at him, her blue eyes prompting, asking, forcing, but he didn't know how to answer, knew just as much as she did.

He probably wouldn't have beared to see what was happening now.

* * *

_"So, you think you're such a clever one, don't you?",_ I whisper, whisper to her, to her limp body. Model body. Showing off. Likes to show what she has. I want to spit on her face.

She's moaning, but she's not really awake, her eyes half closed, her head rolling to the left, to the right. A small movement there and here, but not strong enough. Not yet.

The syringe fell down when that stupid bitch attacked my legs and pushed me over and it hurt like hell, she's gonna regret that, she will wish she never did that, but she thought way too much of herself, overestimated herself, underestimated me. She must have still felt it, that agent, felt the poison, the drug in her veins. Why would she fucking dare attacking me? For that stupid piece of shit in the corner? Crying his eyes out? _For that little piece of shit?_

I take the syringe, without getting up from her. Can't leave her alone, can't take my eyes from her. I know she'll get up if I don't look and then she's got me. Haha. Not with me, slut. I'm not that stupid.

The pain in the ass is still crying in his corner. He wasn't sleeping when I came in. He's still not sleeping. He's so much naughtier than my little baby girl. Crying and screaming and ... whatever. You deserved this, all of it. Actually that stuff here, that nice stuff was for him so he could shut the fuck up and finally stop nagging around.

But it seems I need to use this on you now, FBI agent.

So you finally stop nagging around.


	5. She was perfect

First of all, big thanks to marcallie, Lydiaa and Hitotoki for faving and alerting :) Still means a lot to me, I'm always soo happy to see the mails!

Also, special shout-out to Eva and Christina ;)

* * *

Reid sat on the ground, leaning to the wall, staring at the door, waiting, watching out for any movement. He needed to be awake, when Max was coming back. Haley, on the other side, slept right next to him, her head on his arm, using it as a pillow. She was calm again. Peaceful. He still didn't understand how she had survived this long.

Some time had passed since the fighting sounds had stopped, since Max had come down and had drugged Prentiss and had thrown her back into the storage room and since she had left them again, alone in their cells; these rooms were nothing else to them. Reid thought he'd heard her opening a third door, but now, remembering the scenario he witnessed, he wasn't sure anymore. He didn't know what he could be sure about anymore.

The agent blinked. It was like he was waking up from a daydream. He had no clue what time it was... it was still dark outside. The night hasn't ended yet. Reid yawned though it hurt.

He wanted to sleep so badly. He wanted to get out of here, to get a warm bed and coffee and books. He even wanted his mum. Reid _could_ remember the last time he had felt so bad that he was wishing for his mum and it worried him; he didn't want to feel like that again. _That's nothing more than a flu, get over it,_ he told himself... _Stop behaving like a child._

Right, right...

The one good thing about the time passing by and him not sleeping was that he started to remember everything that happened those last days.

* * *

The next steps of their common procedure were checked very quickly. Reid did the geographical profiling, JJ and Prentiss talked to the victim's and the newly kidnapped children's parents, Hotch and Rossi examined the founding places in the city and Morgan the ones in the forest. None of them needed too much time and soon enough they gathered at the police station to explain the unsub's profile to the local policemen. It was already early evening; Paula and Billie have been missing for nine hours now.

Finally they were complete. Like usually the room was a bit too small to contain all the policemen, so some of them had to stand. The agents received all kinds of reactions when they were at police stations to help out. It's never been a surprise when there were some gloomy-looking faces among the eager and hopeful ones. After JJ had introduced the whole team once again, Hotch, Morgan and Reid dealt with explaining the profile.

"We're looking for a white male, 30 to 40 years old", Morgan started. "When he kidnapps the children and murders them he's probably reliving a trauma, caused about two or three weeks ago."

"The kidnappings began shortly after", a tall policeman, sitting in a corner, resumed loudly.

"Exactly. So the unsub hasn't been in the business for long" Morgan nodded. "We guess, he's lost his daughter and the kidnapped girls look like her, they're representing her."

"He's killing them with a heart muscle relaxant, after he had narcotized them. As you probably know this procedure resembles a form of death penalty. Anyway, to the unsub it seems to be the most peaceful way to kill her, which is a proof for love and regret towards the girls", Reid explained. "On the other side he shows a strong disaffirmation towards the male victims and murders them in a very violent way, usually by inflicting a severe cranial trauma - we suppose he thinks a boy is guilty for his daughter's death, but as he can't really kill him he's using the kidnapped children as substitutes for releasing his anger." He cleared his throat.

"But the unsub's not following a pattern, I mean, the boys never look alike, do they? Or is there another pattern we don't know about yet?", another policemen asked. He was a little older than the rest, with shiny green eyes. Probably one of the more intelligent, experienced ones.

"No", Reid answered. "Up to now we assume he doesn't know how the actual boy, the cause of his anger, looks like, so the physical appearance doesn't matter to him. It's only important that the victim is a male." The policemen nodded.

"The different ways of treatment and the opposite feelings are also shown in the way he places and positions the bodies. While the girls are being taken care of, even tarted up and placed in a forest - a place of silence and peace or maybe it has a personal meaning to him -, he lays the boys' bodies on construction sites, where it's dirty and loud - the construction sites are supposed to destroy the bodies on a higher level, a level the unsub can't possibly reach with only his own power", Hotch continued. "The unsub has changed his time pattern - after actually looking for fitting children and watching them for some days, he's now taking them right from the street, which means, he could find them anywhere in the city."

Morgan stepped forward. "The last very important aspect is that the unsub has access to special medical treatment, so we need to check on medicine-related thefts. We also think the unsub might even be working in a treatment center at this time."

Most of the policemen in the room nodded again, already getting their stuff together. "Alright, thank you."

When the crowd slowly elevated and left the room, Hotch turned to Hutton. "I suggest we position some of your men in the forest and at construction sites in the city for the next days", he said. Hutton scratched his head looking around; he was probably already thinking about who was to being sent out. "Meanwhile we'll have our technical analyst searching for someone who might fit the profile." The sheriff nodded. Hotch already saw Morgan talking into his phone indistinctively, most likely with Garcia. He looked back at Hutton. "JJ will give our information to the media soon. Maybe someone witnessed something or the unsub starts panicking and makes mistakes."

"Alright, Hotch. I just hope we can find him in time." Hutton said, not able to hide the exhaustion in his voice. "Thank you though." With this words he left, as well.

Now the FBI agents were the only ones in the room. Rossi and Hotch sat down, waiting for Morgan to end the phone call and JJ rushed out, waving files at Hotch - she was going to meet the journalists, that had already gathered in front of the station hours ago. Reid looked at his map on the board, narrow eyes. He was concentrating so much, that when Prentiss sheered up, he almost jumped. Hadn't seen her coming. "What are you thinking about?", she asked, now looking at the map, too.

"I wonder-", little cough. "I wonder where he could hide the children. I mean, he's organized, but he's still kidnapping them in his own city, so he won't keep them in his own apartment, would he?", Reid rather asked himself than Prentiss, who now shrugged, glancing at the points and lines on the map that only the genius would understand. "He probably wouldn't", she agreed. Reid fell silent again. Then he placed the marker back under the white board, sat down at the table and rubbed his eyes.

Morgan just hang up and looked at the others. When he saw Reid sitting there, looking like he's sunk in himself, he already wondered what was wrong with him. Morgan wrinkled his forehead and decided to ask him about it later on. Smoothly he put his mobile back.

"I told Garcia what we're looking for. Said she's gonna be as fast on it as she can", he told the rest of the team. "So, what we're gonna do now?"

"Get a rest", Hotch decided, mainly facing Reid who didn't even look up, caught in his own thoughts. Actually he seemed to fall asleep on the desk at any moment. Hotch glanced back at Morgan and he didn't have to speak out what he wanted him to do. Rossi and Hotch were out of the room in a minute.

"Hey, kid", Morgan said, sitting down next to Reid. "You okay?"

At first Reid didn't notice he was talking to him; somewhen he looked up and stared at Morgan's face as if he had to recognize him. Remembered what he had asked him. "Uhm, yeah, just- just a little headache. It's probably the weather", he lied, reclining in his chair. The young agent had never reacted on the weather, but he sure wasn't telling Morgan and Prentiss that he might have caught the flu. That was ridiculous. He never got sick. And more importantly he couldn't get sick _now_.

"Alright." Morgan leaned back as well, looking up at Prentiss who lightly shook her head. "If you say so." It was clear, that none of them was believing him, but it was just as useless telling him to have a break.

Reid pushed his chair back and stood up forcefully. He didn't want to be treated like the baby of the team and had to hold himself back not to show it too openly. "I'm okay. It'll go away soon. Don't worry."

* * *

"You're feeling hot", Haley suddenly whispered, her voice so quiet, but shooting through the air, so unexpected that Reid winced a little. "I'm sorry, didn't wanna scare you", she immediately apologized.

"... s'okay", Reid whispered back, not looking away from the door, not reacting to what Haley had said before, concentrating, planning. If Max was working alone, which was most likely the case, there was a way to get out - she was not going to be awake 24/7. If he only knew a way to open that door. He sighed deeply, and regretted it right away when it caused a piercing pain in his chest. Awesome. Please don't have it on the lungs yet.

The girl sat up. "You want your jacket back?"

The agent shook his head _no_, though he clearly needed it, but he pushed any of her attempts to give it back to him away until Haley resigned.

"How have you survived that long?", Reid wanted to know out of nowhere. The unsub had shortened the periods between the murders to a maximum of one day and Haley has been in here for two or three days by now. And maybe her answer could help him to complete the new profile. Besides, he wanted distraction from his own miserable state.

"I played her game", the girl finally answered after a pause, pulling her knees protectively to her body. Reid waited. "I just did everything she wanted me to do, you know? I said the things she wanted to hear and it was alright. She never did anything bad to me because of that. She even told me that I was perfect."

"Perfect?"

Haley nodded.

_She was perfect._ Reid's mind was working flat out. What if the unsub, did not only relive a trauma but... what if she's trying to find the perfect compensatory for her daughter? The boys never had had a chance to survive, he had just been proven that when Max came down and yelled at the one that was with Prentiss - _how is she, what did the unsub do to her, what if, no, don't think about it_ - the unsub would always kill them in the end, but Haley... She seemed to be the right one, so she had survived. The periods didn't get just shorter because Max became impatient, but because the girls haven't fit into her picture at all and she was looking for the right one. As long as Haley was kept in here and as long as she behaved the way Max wanted her to do, she wasn't killed and the boy wasn't killed and no new children were kidnapped.

Reid felt like throwing up, started breathing deeply to fight the nausea. What if they had never visited Max' house and Haley and Mike would just have stayed in here forever, kept in custody for the rest of their or Max' life. This affected him more than it probably should.

Nobody said a word.

The agent looked at that little window again. Still dark. Right, winter, long nights... Winter, snow and cold. Then he looked at the door. There was practically nothing to see, but in that moment something, an idea popped up in his head.

Stiff legs and arms, tired and weak, stomach growling in protest - the last time he ate was obviously too long ago - he moved forward on all fours, feeling a little dizzy and... stuff; for a moment he totally lost control and stumbled, the ground came near and he almost fell down face forward, but he managed to catch himself in the end, just in time. Breathing. Short break. It felt like the door was miles away. He was just so exhausted. Maybe he got more damage to his head than he had guessed? Maybe... He had to stop as he had a coughing fit that shook his whole body. _Breathe, slowly, just don't start having a panic attack. You can do it._ Finally he managed to crawl forward a little more, until he reached the door in the end, looking closely at the lock. If he was right, it could work out.

"Haley", he croaked for the girl, who was still sitting behind him, watching his moves, watching out for signs that he could pass out any moment. She had almost jumped up when the agent started coughing so violently; She also had tried to tell him that he was running a fever, but obviously he wasn't in the state to do anything about it, so she gave up. Maybe it was good that he didn't know, maybe he would freak out a little or just give up and sleep or something. "What is it?", she asked coming over on tiptoes.

"Do you have a hairclip? Or a thin, small wire... thing? Something like that?", Reid asked hopefully, his voice breaking. She didn't understand what he wanted from her. "What? I- I don't think so..." To make certain she touched her hair, but she was right, no hairclip. Haley shook her head.

Barely able to hide the disappointment Reid nodded, then proceeded to move to the pile of undefineable things spread across the room. There must be something... But it was so hard to see anything at all, not to speak about finding a thin wire. And what if... What if Max had thought about this option? What if she was really more clever than expected? No, that was too unlikely.

"What are you doing?", Haley, being genuinely interested, asked.

"I'm trying to find documents. Or rather the paper clips with the documents", Reid explained roughly, scooping stuff aside.

"Alright... Though I don't know what you're going to do with it..." Reid didn't react to what she was saying, so Haley just sat down. The girl began digging in the things, as well, convincing herself over and over that the agent hasn't gone crazy and knew what he was doing.

A considerable amount of time passed, maybe even hours of silent searching, until Haley finally found what they were looking for. She smiled all over her face and had to suppress a happy scream when she pulled off the silver paper clip. "Hey, Mr. Reid, I got it, look!", she squealed as quiet as possible.

Reid looked up, smiling back. "That's great! You got us out of here", he whispered, his voice as raspy as sand, taking the paper clip and crawling to the door again. The first thing to do when they got out of the danger, Haley thought to herself, was getting a glass of water for Mr. Reid.

The agent bend the paper clip to a long piece of wire, then he poked it into the lock. Hopefully it had been worth their time.

After seemingly endless minutes of Haley watching Reid and Reid watching the lock - picking a lock was already difficult enough, but with shaky hands it was nearly impossible - they heard a redeeming klicking; Reid had found their way out.

But he knew, these things never were going to end easy on him.


	6. Can do it

Thanks to eyesonfire, jensenfan4ever, Kiyiamayu and fanficReider for alerting and faving! Hope you all like this chapter!

* * *

Slowly Reid pulled himself up on the doorhandle, dared to glance outside, pushed the door open.

It was only dark. Black. There was really nothing to see. He stopped in his movement. Headache had gotten worse since he'd stood up. And nausea. Yes, his head... Concussion...? But the dark, it was worse. Took a deep breath.

Haley was about to ask, what it was, why he stood there as if he was planted to the ground, when she remembered, what he had said before. _I don't really like the dark._ "I can switch on the light-"

"No." The agent had lost his voice completely by now; the girl almost didn't hear him at first, looked at him for confirmation. What if she just started hearing things? He stared into the dark. Clinged to the door. "No", he repeated. "She might notice it." Right then he started coughing violently, desperately trying to muffle the sounds, cursing himself for being so loud. No, no, no, she couldn't come back now, not now, when they've come so far.

They listened for several minutes, tensed, not moving at all, not daring to, but no steps on the stairways. Reid looked at Haley, nodding._ Let's go._

Reid knew exactly where to go. Groping at the wall, feeling the rough material, scratching his hand, when he lost balance and fell against it; then the sleek, ice cold metal, wall, metal, wall - This must be it. He cautiously knocked on the door, where he assumed Prentiss would be behind and he hoped it was loud enough for her to hear, but also quiet enough for no one else to hear. The girl behind him only proceeded following him where he went, grabbing his shirt, so she wouldn't lose him.

He heard someone moving inside the room and immediately kneeled down to open that door as well. Haley turned around to look at where she thought the main door was, listening for any suspicious sound, but there was none. Luckily.

Reid's finger were stiff and shaking; opening their own door had been hard enough, but could he make it in time, opening this with no light around? He closed his eyes._ Concentrate. You can do it_. A harsh cough escaped his throat, he fell backwards, sat down roughly. Allowed himself to shiver, cause Haley couldn't see it, couldn't ask.

He hadn't actually believed he could've opened the first door, even though he had told himself to. Maybe it helped a second time. _Come on, you can do it._

* * *

_6th January_

The next day the team came back to work started awfully. Paula and Billie had already been found again. Sadly.

They didn't make it in time. Some of the policemen made clear how unsatisfied they were with the FBI's work when the BAU team entered the building one after another. The looks were enough, but few even had to vent their anger loudly.

The team met in the conference room, where they listened to Hutton who didn't hide his disappointment, as well. Hotch was the only one talking back to him, trying to make him understand, that they were also just people and couldn't magically find the unsub just like that. Hutton simply said, they'd have to look for another team if it went on like this and left the room.

Morgan looked like he was about to punch a wall - and the rest of the team sat there in silence, staring at the table or at the wall or somewhere else, waiting for someone to start talking.

"It's only a matter of time until the next children are being missed", Hotch suddenly said dryly.

"We can only hope the press conference helped making the people aware, made parents looking after their children more carefully... That they can prevent it", JJ said more to herself than to anyone else.

That moment Morgan's phone rang, everyone winced slightly. Not the next children, please. It would be too soon.

"It's Garcia." You could practically hear every team member breathing out in relieve. He answered and put her on speakerphone.

"Okay, I've got some candidates for you, but not many and I couldn't find someone who would fit your profile perfectly", she promptly started. "First, we got a Tyler Dunn, 32 years old, he lost his daughter, who had brown hair, blue eyes... but no criminal record and I'd have no idea, how he managed to get the medicine, cause he has an office job in a company managing... toy factories." She sighed. "Next one is William Boyle, 38 years old, who is indeed working in the right field, he's a doctor's assistant at the local hospital and he got divorced, but the daughter's not looking like the victims and she's not dead. We also have three or four other suspects, but no one's being close enough to the profile. It's also pretty hard to find a relation to just some boy who might be the reason for the loss of their daughter."

"Okay, thanks, Garcia", Morgan said finally. "I'll let you know when we have more information." He put the phone back and straightened up.

"What are we going to do now?", Rossi asked after a short while.

Hotch looked up. "We're gonna look at the finding places again. All of us. Hopefully he made a mistake, maybe left something lying around, some clue."

Everyone moved from their chairs, lifting up, except Reid. He looked small in the wide jacket he still wore and he stared at the table, just like the evening before. "Reid?", Morgan asked, causing JJ and Prentiss to stop in the doorframe, turning around to them. "Hey, Reid", Morgan repeated louder.

Finally the young agent looked up. "Hm?" His voice was almost unhearable, so much quieter than normal. Morgan felt like it was a déjà-vu from yesterday.

"Come up, boy, we gotta go" Morgan softly said; he exchanged worried looks with Prentiss and JJ, who started approaching the two agents.

"Oh... okay." Reid answered, carefully supporting himself on the chair, swaying slightly, and before he could protest against it he felt himself being held from all sides. "What is it?", he asked, already a little louder. "I'm good. It's still... the weather." He wrinkled his forehead. No, he still didn't like being babied.

"Have you listened to anything we were talking about?", Prentiss asked sceptically, scanning Reid's face. He was paler than usual, breathing shallow, eyes tired, but focused.

"The children... were found dead", he responded breathlessly. "Garcia called..."

"I think, he didn't even drank any coffee today", JJ remarked towards Morgan.

Reid had enough, shook the arms away from him weakly, but strong enough to catch his team members off-guard and stepped a few steps back. "I just..." He loudly coughed into his elbow, before he continued. At least he's able to stand on his own, JJ thought to herself.

"Honestly? I don't feel good, okay? Are you happy now?" He hatched for breath. They knew he'd never admit it simply like this, so he was definitely sick. "But I still can help with the case-"

"Is there a problem?", Hotch interrupted, suddenly standing in the doorframe like he beamed himself in there. Reid swallowed. Great. Just tell everyone now. Make a broadcast.

"Reid's sick like a dog and won't admit it", Morgan immediately blurted out, before the youngest could answer. The team leader looked at him now, just as JJ and Prentiss and Morgan had done all the time. Scanning, x-raying, maybe even profiling. He shifted uncomfortably. This did not go the way it should.

"It's not that bad", Reid insisted. "I - I got a little cold, but it's actually nothing. I still can help." His eyes pleading.

"You got a fever?", Hotch asked. Reid shook his head. He hadn't checked yet, but he didn't think he had one, so... "Then that's it. Are you coming now?" He looked at the others as well and went out of the room, mentally making a note for himself, that he was not going to let Reid get near the unsub and force him handling a gun in this state.

Reid exhaled deeply, packed his bag and rushed out without looking at JJ, Prentiss or Morgan. Prentiss shook her head in disbelief. "If he's going on like this, I don't even know... We'll have to look out, I guess."

Not much later they had arrived in the woods. Reid still was very silent, when they examined the place, where the girl was found. But there was not much to say. Actually no one could say much. No one wanted to think about explaining to the next parents, that they're children couldn't be saved.

There were no signs that this place could be something special to the unsub and obviously he hadn't lost anything around. Paula's body was as untouched as the girls' before. Nothing to grab on that could lead to his personality.

When they were on their way to the construction site, JJ got a call. Too soon. It's just been three hours since the last victims were found. And now the next children were reported missing - Haley Peterson and Mike Simpson.

The next round started - Talking to the parents, collecting information, searching for relations, for anything important, but the unsub seemed to stay as anonymous as before and the team got more tired and tired. Nothing they tried seemed to help. Any connection they made led to nowhere. Everyone was having this huge load of weight on their shoulders, but no effort paid off, not even Garcia could help out a lot, but they still kept working. Especially Reid who had been very reluctant towards any break wouldn't stop mind-mapping and thinking, always being watched over by the rest of the team.

Days went by without any new victims.

It was 8th January in the afternoon when a call came in that would change everything.

JJ rushed into the conference room, the phone in her hand. "We got a witness, Hotch. You should better talk to her."

Everyone stopped in surprise. Hotch stood up. "Alright."

The blonde agent handed him the mobile and went over to Prentiss, nodding towards Reid, who himself was watching Hotch. "How's he doing?", she asked very quietly. Prentiss simply shrugged.

"He's working, like always. But the coughing doesn't sound too good. Got worse the last days." As if that was a key word, he shuffled and coughed into his elbow. "I wonder why Hotch hasn't sent him to a doctor yet."

"He's not with us. He's concentrating on the case. I mean, of course he notices us, but maybe... Maybe he has enough trust in Reid, that he hopes, he would call himself off when he feels he can't do it anymore, you know?", JJ answered.

"Here's Agent Hotchner. Who am I talking to?"

"But honestly, look at him, he's barely awake", JJ continued, Hotch talking indistinctively in the background. "And he's cold." The way Reid had folded his arms, inside his jacket, even inside his sleeves, leaning against the white board was enough to tell.

"I know, what you mean", Prentiss answered. "But he's stubborn as always... It's like he thinks he needs to prove something to us."

If the youngest knew that they were talking about him, he didn't show it.

"Alright, thank you very much. We're sending agents over." Hotch hung up. "Prentiss, Morgan, you're going to visit the witness."

"Why isn't she coming here?", Prentiss wanted to know.

"She doesn't have a car and the weather's too bad to go here by foot. You'll know what I mean, when you're outside. Her name's Maximilia Bennet and the address is-"

"I'm coming with them", Reid suddenly interrupted, banging his pencil on the desk louder than intended and already reached for his bag. It was a little shock to hear his voice again, deeper and scratchy, after he hadn't talked all day long.

"... What?" Hotch was taken by surprise.

"I'm coming with them", Reid repeated eagerly, obivously suppressing a cough now.

Morgan stood up from his chair, shaking his head. "You're not, Reid, two are enough to-"

"I'm of no use when I stay here. I don't know what to do with the things I have here. I'm repeating the same stuff over and over and I can't find a solution. I'm going crazy. I just wanna help. Why shouldn't I come with you?", he rasped, coughed. Morgan hopefully looked at Hotch.

* * *

"I'm gonna have a talk with Hotch when we're coming back", Morgan hissed angrily, rushing out the police station with huge, stamping steps. Prentiss almost had to run to keep up with him and she looked for Reid, who was shuffling far behind, not even trying to call for them to wait. He had acted like he was fine and he had to keep on like that, he knew that.

"Morgan, just- come on, slow down, he's not coming after us", Prentiss tried to calm down the agent and surprisingly he really slowed down, his jaw clenching.

"I just can't understand why he's doing this. We're not looking down to him when he's sick. Everyone gets sick. It's just reckless."

"I know, but don't get angry, okay? Just go on looking after him like you did all day long. He's just... like this, you know that."

Morgan sighed. "For a genius he's being really stupid right now." Shortly after he had said that, Reid managed to reach the two and together they stepped out into the winter scenery.

The weather really was horrible, at least in Reid's opinion. The snow on the ground was at least 3 feet high and it whirled around in the air, being caught in hair and clothes and faces, thick and annoying flakes, melting on hot skin. It was already dark, as if it was night, and most people preferred to stay inside, of course. The wind felt like it was trying to cut through multiple layers of clothes.

"I'm driving", Morgan decided and walked forward to the front seat; Prentiss chose the second front-seat. Reid was totally okay with that. He could be on his own in the backseat, not having to deal with worried touching and looks from the side. And he certainly didn't want to sit next to Morgan right now. It was not like he didn't notice how he freaked out before. Probably the whole police station noticed. He didn't bother to care and cuddled into his jacket.

The ride was silent and the mood between Morgan and Reid was as cold as the winter outside. Only Prentiss attempted to warm it up by talking about irrelevant things like tv shows and books, especially trying to get Reid into discussion, but none of them answered. Finally she laid her head back and sighed deeply. "You're seriously like kids. Both of you."

"Tell the real kid", Morgan spat, eyes glued to the road. The storm seemed to become worse and worse, the roads getting icy and dangerous.

"I have no idea why you're being angry", Reid only answered, his face leaned on the window, watching the environment flying by. "You're driving too fast."

"I'm definitely not driving too fast."

Reid had no reply. Morgan sighed, shook his head, his expression fairly lighter.

"We're just worried."

"No need to be worried." A shiver ran through Reid's body, he closed his eyes. " 'm okay. Can do this." He fell into a coughing fit, freezing all over. It was so cold in here. "Have you switched on the aircon?", he quietly asked.

"Yeah, I have..." Morgan looked at Prentiss, then at the temperature. 72° F*****. "You sure, you feel okay?" He remembered the thing about the fever.

No, he wasn't, Reid thought. He felt like shit. He was about to just fall asleep in the car, on the ride. But he wouldn't let himself. They had a witness. They would talk to her. They would find the unsub. He opened his eyes, sat up straight. "Yes, I'm alright. No problem." Can do this. He could sleep when they have finished this case.

*****~22° C

* * *

She fucking called the fucking police.

I'm in the bedroom, as they arrive. Then they ring. I stay here and listen. They had no clue it was us, who kidnapped the children and then she invites them into our house. No one would have caught us. But she just called them. Fuck, no.

It's her house, not mine.

I have nothing to do with that. I did nothing bad. I never killed anyone. No, it's never been my fault. I knew nothing, when they ask me. When they find me, I'm innocent, never thought she could do this. It's never been about me.

I hear them entering. Sitting down on the couch, it creaks. Maybe I should come out. It's suspicious when I stay hidden and they find me, isn't it?

Why the hell did she call them at all? She's talking about a car. White. Big.

My car.

I will fucking kill her, when they're away. Yes, I'll finally do it. Should have done it from the start. It's her fault, my baby died. Only her fault. Never saw my baby, and then she killed her. Let her getting killed. She let it happen. Yes, I'll do it.

They ask questions, I can't hear them.

It's been so long. When are they going?

I won't come out of this room. I won't show myself. She's just putting me on the tracks, she wants them to suspect me, she wants to get rid of me before I can get rid of her. Hah, thought so.

The couch creaks again. Someone stands up. "_Bathroom_", I only hear. What if he finds me? The bathroom is right next door.

I look outside. He's thin. I can handle that. In case he sees me. No, can't make them see me. I'm not here.

He's not going to the bathroom. Heads for the... for the stairs. Can't believe my eyes. I can only see his back. Is he fucking crazy, sniffing around like that? Fucking delirious!

No, wait, that's good. No one's seen me yet. No one knows I exist. It's good, when he finds the kids. He'll say, it's been her. She has caught them. Doesn't know about me. I'm safe. Safe.

He's almost up. Opening the door... FUCK NO. Why's that bitch, why is she- No, no, no. She's- NO. NO!

Fuck, that's it, he won't come down too soon. She knocked him out. Fuck, fuck, shit, why- What the hell is wrong with him, that guy's got a gun, why didn't he shoot her?

The others are standing up. No, no, one's coming here. Steps. No, can't find me. I hear him, coming closer. The vase. I hide behind the door. Look. He passes by. A black cop, hah. I listen. The other's nowhere near.

He can't even turn around before I bash that thing on his freaking bowling ball head. The vase is in pieces, he collapses right away. Get his gun, get his gun. That was too loud, the other's coming. I look at her. Gun pointed at me, gun pointed at her.

My bitch of ex-wife's coming up. Right behind her. Two against one. No one shoots. Breathing. Looks between the two of us. Confusion.

I punch her in the face before she can think about shooting. Passed out, as well as her colleagues.

_"What's with the third?"_

Max grins her wide, ugly grin. Always like that when she's high. _"Not a problem_", she says, slurring.

I hide my anger. Need to work out the stuff with the cops at first. Stupid bitch, making more trouble than I needed.

_"What do you think you're doing with them now?"_, I wanna know, my teeth crunching. _"Other cops are gonna look for them!"_

She shrugs, bursts out laughing. _"How the fuck should I know!",_ she screams at me.

I want to shoot her right away, but then they'd know it was me. I'm not gonna shoot the freaking cops. No. Only her. Only she deserved it.

No, not shoot.

I wanted her to fucking choke. Painfully. Pleading. Whimpering. Till her eyes pop out of her face. For killing my daughter.

I take the chick's gun as well, take the gun from Max, put them away, she's still laughing, what the hell.

_"You gotta help me put them away."_

* * *

Hotch looked at the clock, then back at his phone, back at the clock. No call coming in. It was way too late. Prentiss, Morgan and Reid, no one called, they should've been back long ago.

_It's your fault. You put them there. You're fault they're in danger now, Hotch. They'll die because of you._ No, stop. They knew how to defense themselves against one person. They're three. They would make it.

_Then why did no one call?_

Promptly the phone rang. He put it on speakerphone. "Garcia, what have you got?"

"Uhm, a lot, I guess... Maximilia Benett, 32 years old, lost custody of her daughter Anne, who was 10 years old and had blue eyes and brown hair, due to drug abuse. She's probably still addicted to common household medicine, sleeping pills and all of that. Anne came in to a foster family, the... Burtons..., where she had a new brother called Tony. Just few weeks after she was taken from her mother, they had a car crash. Tony was the only survivor."

"Why wasn't she with her father?", Rossi threw in.

"Her father, Chris Benett, was a trucker and had no permanent residence. He's not able to take good care of her."

"Where is Maximilia working, Garcia?", Hotch asked.

"She's a cleaner at Dr. Ackland's clinic for... domestic animals." A loud series of clicking noises was heard. "A lack of medicines used to put animals to sleep was reported recently."

"It's basically our profile on a female", JJ whispered.

"Thank you, Garcia", Hotch said, hanging up. He had refused to tell Garcia the whole truth about their three team members missing, probably stuck with the unsub. She would worry too much. "We need to go."

"I'm afraid that's impossible", Hutton said from behind, coming into the room. He had listened to most of the conversation. "I don't think we can help your agents very soon."

"And why is that?", Hotch asked.

"Look outside." The sheriff pointed at the window. They turned around.

There was nothing to see.

Chicago was completely snowed in.


	7. It's definitely worth it

Thanks a lot for the alerts and faves to LoveReid, Namira 0-0, CMSP, take-me-down-higher and Shining Sunny! *yyaaaaayyys*

No beta, english is not my mother tongue and CM is sadly not mine.

Have fun!

* * *

"... Damn, no."

Once again she heard the bended paper clip fall to the ground, echoing. Haley stayed silent. _Don't push him. He doesn't need even more pressure. _But she couldn't help growing more and more impatient and he could sense it.

Reid had tried to open the door several times now, but the clip always slipped from his shaky hands and it took so much time to find it again, try it again; he even started cursing. His heart was racing, he felt like choking, fainting, but he didn't, for whatever reason. Instead he seemed to cough even more with every breath he took. It was so, so cold in here and it just got worse. Exhausted he leaned his forehead to the door.

It was really just a matter of time until Max came back, wasn't it?

Reid was about to attempt to pick the lock another time, when out of nowhere he heard muffled noises, somewhere across the hallway. Instinctively he looked up, of course seeing nothing but black, but he couldn't take his sight away from where he thought the sound had been coming from.

"Did you hear that?", Haley whispered. She was looking around, as well, with wide open eyes.

"Mmhm..." His throat scratched and he couldn't keep the upcoming cough inside, literally folded himself in half._ You're too loud, too loud, no, no, she will come up, it's too hard... Calm down. Breath. Listen._ Eventually he stopped.

The girl and the agent sat on the ground in complete silence, sometimes being interrupted by the rattling windows and whining, whistling of the wind. They could've mistaken the sound, couldn't they? Both of them?

"... Reid?", a well-known voice called out after some time, insecure and unusually confused, but Reid couldn't help smiling. "Spence, are you there? Man, answer me!"

On all four Reid padded forward, his hand with the paper clip stretched out far, until he could feel the metal again; Haley would not leave his side. Knocked on the door. "Can't-", was the only word he managed to croak before he hacked up half a lung again, searched for the lock and tried picking this one now. He left his eyes closed all the time. He felt like a damp blanket was crawling up on him, over his back, up to his neck, uncomfortable and heavy and creepy and pushing down his head.

"What- How did you-" Morgan was too overwhelmed and surprised to form a gramatically acceptable sentence, he was rather listening to the sounds behind the door. Reid was alive. He was just about to free all of them. He did it.

This time unlocking the door went surprisingly fast. Maybe because the voice and presence of his colleague was more motivating than all the silence around him, more optimistic than not knowing if Prentiss was fine enough to stand up on her own, cause Reid sure couldn't help her with that, more helpful than the feeling that he had to carry all the responsibility to save these people all alone. Whatever reason there was, the door opened quickly. Just like before Reid pulled himself up on the doorhandle and opened the big door.

"Hey, Morgan." Speaking hurt but it was definitely worth it. He was so happy that he lived, that he was with him, that he wasn't on his own anymore.

"Kid, you- Wow. Great to see- Are you okay?" Morgan stretched his arms out, coming up towards Reid's lightweight, sunk down figure, pulling him in for a hug. He didn't mind when the poor kid coughed into his shoulder, but rather when he wouldn't start talking to him and when he felt the heat and the younger getting heavier and heavier, until he completely collapsed against him.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, Spence, slow, slow... Are you here with me?" Morgan cautiously kneeled down to the ground, somehow trying to place Reid into a comfortable position, which was really difficult with the little amount of light coming from outside the window. Only more groaning coughs as an answer. "You did great, do you know?", Morgan chuckled, trying to comfort Reid the best he could. He really meant it. Reid had gotten through a lot. He felt a physical pain in his chest when he noticed how the younger was struggling to answer. "You're burning up, kid", Morgan whispered. "Knew that stupid cold-"

"What is with him?"

Morgan totally jumped at surprise when he heard the girl's shy, trembling voice coming out of nowhere. His heart stopped for a moment.

Must be one of the kidnapped kids. Haley. He remembered. She slowly came closer, hardly lit-up when she entered the room.

"He's... not feeling good", Morgan answered truefully but understated, forcing himself to look away from Reid. He looked so terrified. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Haley nodded. "He got knocked out by Max at first."

"Max!", Morgan hissed. "Is that the guy's name?"

She frowned. "...No?" Haley shook her head in confusion. "Max is a woman. I have seen no man."

"It's two then?" the agent concluded, not actually believing what- _Right, right, Max, Maximilia, the witness, I completely forgot... We did some awesome profiling there... _He wanted to punch himself for actually accepting that Reid came with them._ Just a witness, fuck that._

"I woke him", the girl continued, pointing at Reid. "He gave me his jacket because it's so cold. Somewhen Max came up and was checking on us, wanted to know if we were sleeping. She left us alone. But that other woman..."

"Prentiss!", he hissed.

"I think it was her. Mr. Reid was very upset. She wanted to protect the boy, who was... taken with me. And then she fought with Max, but Max won... That was not too long ago."

Morgan hadn't noticed any of this. His head hurt like hell, he must have slept it through up to now, from when he was attacked up to now. So much time was lost. The unsubs could've done anything to his team members and he wouldn't even know.

"Where is she?", he demanded, trying to stay as calm as possible. As far as he knew, he was the only one able to do something actively to save everyone, regarding the feverish Reid and Prentiss probably knocked-out at least two times.

"Behind the door over... there." Haley pointed into the dark hallway. "It's two or three doors from here. Max threw her in again and left then. Mr. Reid had an idea. He used a paper clip to open our door." Now Morgan understood. His magic tricks. "But she'll come back. Soon. She'll punish us."

The agent stood up now, stepping towards the girl. "Don't worry, Haley, alright? We'll all get out of here, I promise. Okay, now come here." Quiet, quiet steps. She wore socks. The jacket dragged on the ground behind her. Morgan held her hand. Carefully. Led her to Reid backing to the wall, just like before. He couldn't stop coughing and Morgan wondered, why nobody had come upstairs up to now; judging by that volume they must have noticed long ago. The younger didn't bother to calm himself anymore, glancing at the other two, uncoordinated but at least awake. Haley sat down on the ground. "I want you to look out for Reid here, alright? Talk to him, help him staying awake."

"I'm still-" The rest of Reid's sentence got lost in another series of harsh coughs.

Morgan picked up the paper clip and smiled reassuringly at Haley, though he couldn't hide the deep worry in his eyes. "I'll be back in a minute."

* * *

"Is there no other option? No other way to send help?", Hotch asked once again. He just couldn't believe that they were totally useless right now, while his agents were in danger and most probably not even able to answer their phones at that moment. He was sure now, something must have happened.

Hutton shook his head. "We can only wait for the storm to calm down and send our men then. I'm verry sorry." The sheriff answered, being literally pierced up by Hotch's sharp, brown eyes. He shifted. "I'm really sorry, but there's nothing we can do at this point." He left, shuffling steps. It was almost 3 a.m. Everyone needed sleep desperately, but no one dared to relax, no one could.

Rossi leaned back in his chair. "At least the unsub can't escape as well." No one answered.

JJ's phone rang, violently breaking the silence. "Garcia? What happened?"

"Why isn't Derek answering his phone?", she asked snappily. "Or Spence? Or Emily? You're the first I actually got to reach!"

JJ swallowed, looked at Hotch who shook his head _no_. "We have a blizzard over here, in Chicago. Sometimes the connection's very bad, Penelope." She would only tell half the truth.

"Oh... Right." That seemed to make sense to her. "I heard about the storm. Are you all doing fine? How's the case?"

"We're... pretty close to the unsub, actually."_ Too close to be honest._ "It's just the weather, we can't get away from the department."

"Oh, okay... Can you give me Derek, please? He asked me to find out something for him."

"You can tell me right away, Garcia", JJ answered a little too fast. "I'm gonna tell all of the team."

"It's not about the case, he asked me to look up something for him, privately... Can I talk to him now?"

JJ's eyes widened, looking at Hotch again, trying to find an acceptable answer. "Uhm, actually..." Her head was empty. No ideas, no lies, no sorry excuses. She sighed, resigning. There was no use trying. She would find out sooner or later. "Actually, he's not with us. I can't give him the phone right now."

"... You just said he was. That you all can't get away from the station." Garcia stared at her computer desktop as if the answer was there to be found. She didn't understand.

JJ stayed silent. Waiting for realization hitting Garcia. It was awful and cruel but the words were stuck in her throat. She couldn't tell her and she didn't wanna listen to what was coming. Closed her eyes.

Garcia gasped. "What has happened to him?", she asked, surprisingly calm.

"It's not... It's not only him", JJ almost whispered now. "Prentiss and Reid were with him. You had to tell us everything about Maximilia Benett, possibly the unsub, you know?"

"Of course I do." _Prentiss and Reid, too? But Reid was sick! He's not supposed to be with them..._ The analyst kept these thoughts to herself, now beating the desk with her funky pink pen in impatience and nervousness.

"She claimed to be a witness, wanted to tell us something about a car she has seen at the crime scenes or... You know. They were going to her house. And... they didn't come back. They're not calling, not answering their phone..."

"... Why didn't you tell me right away?" Garcia sounded genuinely hurt.

"... We don't know if they're really in danger or not, but..." JJ gestured, coming under pressure to offer an explanation, looking at the ceiling as if it would help her stating what she felt, commenting on why they did what they did, but it was unexplainably hard.

"... I'm gonna call later, JJ."

* * *

_I knew it was a mistake. Right away. How could she be so fucking stupid?_

_Now we don't even have a chance to escape. We're freaking trapped. The snow is everywhere. You can't see anything in here without turning on the lamps. Snowed in. With three FBI agents._

_Biggest mistake she could've done._

_I couldn't sleep so I turned on the TV. Max is sleeping like... a rock. Drugged like a fuck. Doesn't care at all. It's been her fault that we're stuck in this shit and she doesn't care at all. Not a thing._

_I shouldn't have teamed up with her. I'm really stupid, too._

_My last chance is acting as if I did nothing. Staying innocent._

_I know I've blasted that one's head, but... I was acting in self-defense. I thought he'd broken in. Right. And that chick, she's... Seriously, I didn't know they were in the house at all, that's what I'm gonna say. I thought they'd kill me if I didn't fight back. Didn't know they were FBI agents interrogating my ex-wife._

_Max is starting to snore. Gotta make the TV louder. Fucking weather, it's loud outside and loud inside, it's fucking annoying. Shit._

_2:56 a.m. They say it's gonna be calmer in the morning. Hopefully. Need to leave here as soon as possible._

* * *

Haley poked Reid in the shoulder once again. "Hey. Stay awake."

Morgan was fighting the door's lock a few feet away, creating a soothing cloud of background noise, when he was silently cursing like a sailor.

_The funny cat's back,_ Reid thought at the girl's touch, smiling lightly. _That means, pain will go away for a while. Finally._

He didn't react, at least not in a way that she could see, his eyes were closed. He looked almost relax. "Mr. Reid." She grabbed the shoulder now and shook him, not too strong and not too weakly, hoping not to hurt him. Just an unnerved groan as response.

_Cat, you're starting to be annoying, seriously... Leave. Please. _It started pushing him from the side, rubbing its head to his shoulder, then into his side. Gently, but constantly. It wouldn't let him fall asleep. He waved into nowhere, slowly, not seriously, missed her._ Go away._

When Reid still didn't bother to wake up again, the girl leaned down to his ear, as close as possible.

Cat's whiskers were really tickling on his cheek. Warm breath. He flinched, turning his head away. Too tickly._ Stop it, silly cat._

"PSSHHH!"

Reid jumped up, eyes wide open, touching his ear in shock, then looking at Haley next to him, jaw dropped down in indignation. "What the-"

"You wouldn't wake up", the girl simply said, staring at her hands. She had been so loud in his head, he thought he'd have a heart attack.

"... That- was really... awful", he somewhen said, his voice hoarse and scratchy. He sounded like he had just ran a marathon. And he felt like that; hot and sweaty and exhausted and short-winded and dizzy and queasy. He didn't want to think about getting up any time soon.

"Only way to wake you up, like I already said." Haley looked at him from the side. Reid sat up uneasily but didn't close his eyes again. She concentrated on the background sounds. They had a chance. They were able to escape. She couldn't believe it. The little girl grabbed her knees and pulled them closer, than put the jacket around all of her body like a blanket, diving her head into the neck line."I want my mum and dad", Haley suddenly said, her voice not half as strong as before. Reid couldn't see the tears in her eyes. _Now that's when the levee breaks... _But she couldn't hold them back, started sobbing.

Reid coughed into his hand. He thought his throat has never been drier, his tongue was like glue in his mouth. Water... Water would help. Every coughing attack felt worse than the one before. And it tasted awfully... Like iron. That wasn't good, he knew it, something was terribly off. He looked at the inside of his hand, hoping the dark-looking liquid there wasn't what he assumed it was. He felt sick to his stomach. "Want them, too", Reid breathed. Haley lifted her head, staring at him in disbelief.

"Hey, guys, you okay now?" All of a sudden Morgan stood in the doorframe, having sneaked up from out there. He looked worried sick. Reid nodded slightly. He wouldn't tell him about the blood. Morgan couldn't help him anyways. "I could open the door, but... I need your help." Morgan went on speaking, specifically looked at his friend. "Can you stand up?"

Reid swallowed. "... not so fond...", he murmured, but already tried to stem himself up with help of the ground and wall. In the twinkling of an eye Morgan was by his side, holding his arm. Reid's head fell forward, his knees knicking in. "... everythi-... swirls..." He cleared his throat which resulted in a cough, grabbed Morgan's sleeves.

"Easy, easy... No stress. You're doing awesome." Minutes passed with nothing else happening than Reid catching his breath and controlling his balance.

"Okay, now", he eventually whispered, looking up. "Okay. What do you-" Pause. "- want me... to do?"

Morgan hated to ask for the following. "We need to go downstairs."

_Downstairs?_ He thought they were already as downstairs as possible? How much did he miss out?

"We have to go down", Morgan continued explaining his battle plans. It didn't sound like something else to Reid. "Find out what our chances are. What they're doing there. Find out if we can get out."

Reid left his eyes closed cause he feared his environment would be still swirling when he opened them, but he knew something wasn't right. "... What about... Emily?" If Morgan had chosen him to come with him and he already was totally useless, Prentiss must be ... even worse? _No, no._ Reid raised his head. "Seriously- What-" He was wide awake again.

"She's unconscious. Breathing, but unconscious", the agent finally answered. "I don't know what they did to her, but I can't wake her up, for god's sake."

It was painful to hear. There was just one small hope... "How's... Mike... the boy?", Reid asked, concentrating to speak out every word properly. Maybe if he simulated to himself that he was okay, he would feel okay.

Morgan bit his lip, unusual for him, showing that he too wasn't confident of the situation. He got knocked out as well. Out of nowhere. It made him feel vulnerable, though he would have never admitted it. "He lives and he's awake. Good for the circumstances." He looked at Haley, his eyes warm. "You might look after him. Together you'll feel better." The girl stood up as if on command, hiding her face from the agents but going into the room Prentiss was in, too, not saying a word.

When she disappeared behind the door, the younger agent nodded, straightening his back as far as he could. Now was the time. "... Let's go."

* * *

_"Come on, let's go, Anne!" She runs. On her wobbly legs. I see her getting bigger. Growing. Her hair longer, shining in the summer sun. She smiles. She's so precious. My baby. My little baby._

_The day she was born. Painful is an inappropriate word for giving birth, but, yes, worth it. Worth everything. Her beautiful, bright, blue eyes. Her soft hair on the big head. She smiled. Smiled a lot._

_She didn't lose that smile when she got older._

_She suffered so much, but she never lost hope. She was taken from me, taken from her mother. She was all alone. Scared. Her big eyes, pleading. She begged. She didn't wanna leave me, didn't wanna go to that new family, she was so afraid. My little Anne was brutally taken away. I did nothing wrong. I cared for her. I could've never hurt her. They were wrong. I could never do that. It's their fault she... she died._

_And he got to live._

**_Why is he alive?_**

_She didn't deserve this. My birdie deserved a far better death. Peaceful. Fall aleep, my little beauty. Dream of a better life._


	8. Crash

At first I wanna welcome and thank MrsCriminalMinds, fledglingfeathers, vickimaloof, Godlover777, montydam and Leseratte14 for alerting and stuff! You guys make me really happy :D *thumbsup*

I'd recommend you to listen to the piano tune from CM's _Coda_ (I don't know, I probably can't put a link in here?) while reading the first paragraphs, cause that was what I listened to over and over while writing - I'm a maniac - and in my opinion it fits perfectly! *sob*

* * *

_A few weeks ago_

The sun was brightly shining down, no cloud on the blue sky. There has been snow fall the night before and now it twinkled, it was blinding.

Anne had moved outside from Chicago, into a big, big house, painted white, with a garden on their own and just a few neighbors. A dog was the only thing that missed to complete the perfect family picture, like in the books or movies.

It was noon and she was practically glued to the window. She had never seen so much untouched snow. Her room was upstairs and she had a great view on the lake. Melanie had promised her to let someone build a balcony to her room in summer, if she'd like to. It sounded awesome.

Anne and her foster family were getting ready to drive to Meijer's to do the grocery shopping this Saturday.

Melanie stood in the doorframe, suggesting to braid her hair if she wanted. Melanie. Anne couldn't call her mum yet, not so soon. She's just been with them for a few weeks! She didn't know if she ever could.

Melanie loved Anne's hair, she emphasized it every time. Her own was too destroyed, she said. Had dyed it too often. I would never dye my hair, Anne said. I like it like that.

When Mel was finished, Anne jumped up, her red dress floating around her legs in black tights. They went downstairs. She put on her favorite black boots. Melanie was smiling at her widely. You look like you jumped out of a fairy tale, she said when Anne looked at her questioning, fighting with the laces to unwind. What's your favorite fairy tale, Anne?

The girl sat down on the bench in the hallway. Her new father and brother still weren't finished, so they had a little time to talk. She answered, Sleeping Beauty, but she didn't really know why. What's yours?

Snow White and Rose Red, Melanie answered. Do you know it?

Isn't it Snow White, the princess? With the dwarfs?

No... It's not the same. Melanie shook her head. It's an old fairy tale from Germany, where my grandmother still lives. It's not really popular, but to me it's very special. Basically it's two young girls who meet a bear who turns out to be a prince. My grandmother always told me the story when I came to visit her... Rose Red, the outgoing, always active and Snow White, the calm one... A little like you and your- Like you and Tony.

But Tony isn't a girl!, Anne exclaimed, smiling and shaking her head.

Did you call me?, the small, blonde boy asked quietly, wringing his hands. He was a few years younger than Anne and he also looked like it, in his fairly wide, blue shirt. He didn't talk that much, especially not with people he didn't know well enough. But when he had met Anne for the first time, when he was told that she was going to live with them for a while, he immediately grew fond of her; he didn't know why. He just liked her. They spent a lot of time together.

It's nothing, his mum said. Dad's finished soon, so let's get ready.

Anne put on her new jacket, red outside and fluffy pink inside. She liked it a lot.

Okay, honey. Melanie's husband, Ian, had finally finished preparing the papers in his office and was now longing for his jacket. Not much later the family was leaving the house.

The air was cold and fresh, but not necessarily unpleasant - they overheated their house more often than not. And it was so clear... There were no cars around. Melanie and Ian had decided to reside outside the city, a little apart from civilization, if you might call it so. It was just more peaceful. The children were walking in front of them.

Anne looked around, then picked up two handful of snow, formed a ball and threw it at Tony, who immediately started squeaking. Ewww! It's running down my back! Anne, stop it!

Why won't you try hitting me instead?, she laughed, turning her back on him and running down the yard. He followed her a few feet but somewhen he stopped and just looked at her in exhaustion. He didn't really like running. Anne!, he cried. Come back! We're leaving!

The girl rolled her eyes, unnerved. You're such a baby, Tony! But she came back to the car, where Mel and Ian were already sitting in. Don't forget knocking off your shoes!, Mel reminded them. And fasten your seatbelts.

Yeah, of course... Anne didn't like the seatbelt cause it always cut her in the shoulder and neck when the car stopped rapidly. But that was what it's for right? Not having her flying through the whole car when they stopped.

They started driving wordlessly. Instead of talking Mel usually turned on the cd player. She loved the classics, especially piano music. It was nice, Anne thought. So calm and ... nice. The first nights Anne was with them she couldn't sleep, so Mel turned on music like this for her.

The main melody repeated itself all the time. It reminded her of a music box or something similar. Not that she had ever possessed something like that. Images appeared in her head. A ballerina dancing. She was beautiful. Blonde. Her hair in a bun, wearing the tutu, long legs. Elegant. There were tears on her face.

Why did she cry? Was she sad? Or hurt? Or simply happy to have a new place, a new home?

Anne missed her mum. A lot. But she understood, that she was ill. She had been drifting away from her. She couldn't help her with her homework and she stopped cooking for her. She slept all the time. And when she didn't sleep she... was away. Physically and mentally.

Anne looked outside, watching the white fields and houses rushing by, kneading her lucky charm, a tiny plush toy rabbit she got from her mum years ago, when dad was still at home. She would never leave the house without it.

Soon they would arrive, it was only a few minutes drive, but they always bought so much and for walking it home it was too far away.

Tony watched Anne from aside. Wondered what she was thinking about. He knew little about why she came to them, but enough to be sure, that she must have been really sad. He hoped she was okay with them. Loudly he asked what she was gonna take with them at the store. She looked at him now.

I want icecream, he said.

You have enough ice around here, Melanie smiled, turning around to the kids.

Still. Tony crossed his arms.

I want icecream, too, Anne answered, smiling back at Tony and Mel.

She decided the dancing ballerina was happy.

In that moment drunk 48-year-old Vincent Hale tried to pass a truck in the oncoming traffic.

It was a beautiful day when Anne and her foster parents died.

* * *

_Now_

The door luckily didn't make a sound when Morgan opened it, unlike the ones of the rooms they had been captured in. Reid narrowed down his breathing. He looked at the walls, the ground, remembered fighting with, or more likely being... defeated by Max here, before he could see what was behind the door. Before he could discover what was happening here. He paused. Listened. Morgan heard it, too.

Someone was talking.

Morgan was the first to dare taking another step, he took the lead. Slowly put his foot down. No creak. Reid grabbed the fabric on Morgan's shoulder with one hand and the banister with the other, feeling dizzy, the basement far away, like he'd fall down the stairs any moment. They took five more steps without any interference. It felt like an eternity had passed. They were tensed. Hopefully prepared for anything that could happen. The talking became louder. Two persons. Two girls.

"It's the TV", Morgan suddenly said. They're watching TV! Now? As if they had nothing better to do... Why didn't they leave the house? Why don't they escape? ... What are they going to do?

Other than what he assumed was the shining of the TV monitor coming from the right, there was no light at all. They had almost reached the basement. Just a few steps left.

Then a scream, piercing, grating. The agents flinched, Reid, who was about to take another step, stepped on the edge, slipped, fell on his back and down the stairs, almost pulling Morgan with him, when he tried to have a grip on something. Even Haley and Mike had heard the scream upstairs in that room, looking at the open door.

Reid landed on the foot of the stairs, violently coughing, tears in his eyes. His back hurt like hell, numbing, having irritated his lungs. He couldn't see anything, head on the ground. Steps approaching from the living room. The screaming didn't really stop - it's been a woman - she just got quieter, but she was still hysterical. This wasn't the TV. No.

Faster than Morgan could have realized what was actually happening, a man appeared, coming around the corner, perplexed staring at Reid convulsing on the ground in front of him, then Morgan. His back was about Morgan's back doubled, his head big and fleshy, very short-cut hair, deep eye circles; he hadn't slept. Well, this wasn't the way he had planned it out, but maybe Morgan would have a chance.

Chris striked out to kick Reid, who had already noticed him, was already trying to pull away, roll away - he didn't remember ever having seen that man at all - when Morgan practically jumped down the stairs, flew over Reid, against Chris body, pushing over the mighty figure. They fell down to the floor with a deep bump, Reid feeling it in the floor. The older agent repeatedly punched into the direction of the criminal's face, sometimes hitting, sometimes not.

He defended himself. Eventually he stroke Morgan's nose and jaw and mouth, which he prefered, but he couldn't protect his own face. In the heat of the moment, Morgan didn't notice, how Chris was groping for the gun that had flipped out of his hand when the agent had attacked him. He hadn't even noticed the man had a gun at all.

Reid fought himself up, bewilderedly watching the both men, his head spinning, he had no idea what he had to do, felt helpless, _think fast. _Then he saw the gun on the ground.

He was looking for a way to reach it, looking around in the apartment, remembering, there a floor, then to the right and once again, you could reach it from the other side, through the kitchen, through the hallway, passing the sleeping room and arriving in the living room; but he was too slow and could only stood there watching when Chris reached the weapon.

The gun was shot.

* * *

"This is far too much time wasted. We have to wait until the streets can be cleared, and until they have finished it and..." We can do nothing, JJ thought. It was pretty crushing.

In a quiet moment she had excused herself from the room and talked to Garcia, multiple times telling her how sorry she was for trying to lie to her and promising the second they had new information she'd call her. Garcia understood.

Now the few people that were left from the team had been sitting at the desk or walking around in the room uneasily, uselessly, restlessly, waiting for new information to come in, to have a clue, nothing had happened in hours. The storm hadn't stopped yet.

Suddenly a policemen entered the room, visibly tired but also unexpectedly excited. "Haley Peterson called."

Everyone jumped up. Hotch looked at him in disbelief. "How do you know it's not a prank?"

"It's a call from one of your agents phones, actually."

Thousands of thoughts rushed through their heads. _They were there, Haley lived, but why would she call and no one else..._

"Let me talk to her", Hotch ordered. The policemen led them to the other room, meanwhile JJ was calling her best friend. When they entered Hutton was talking into a phone. He looked up, saw Hotch coming. "Alright. I'll hand you to Aaron Hotchner now. He's from the FBI and we believe his agents are with you." JJ lay her mobile next to the office phone, so Garcia could listen live.

_"Okay."_

Hotch placed himself in front of the phone, the loudspeakers on. "Haley?"

_"... Yes?" _She sounded so young. She was alone.

"How are you? Did she hurt you?" He didn't have to mention her name.

_"I'm... okay."_

"That's good, really. Is there someone with you?"

_"Mhmm. A boy and a woman are with me. They said, her name's Emily. She's sleeping."_

He could feel his heart being a tiny bit easier. "How's Mike?"

_"Mike?... He cries a lot. It's difficult to talk to him."_

"Tell him it's over soon. He doesn't have to be afraid anymore." _He's alive as well. _

_"Mhmm. Did you hear that, Mike? ... He nods."_

"Okay. Now, who did you mean with 'they'?"

_"The agents. Mr. Reid and Mr. Morgan"_, the girl answered in all naturalness.

_Thank God._ "Where are they now, Haley?"

_"They wanted to go downstairs. Max is there. They want to free us... I don't know how they want to manage that."_

"Why?"

_"They don't have guns."_

That was when a gun shot was heard on the line. Haley almost dropped the phone, her lips were trembling. Garcia's jaw dropped, she was forcing herself not to hang up. All the people in the conference room stared at the phone, in shock.

"Haley? Haley, are you still there?", Hotch exclaimed.

_"... Yes. Yes, I'm here. I'm afraid. What does it mean? What did just happen?"_ She was close to crying.

"No one knows", Hotch answered truthfully. He actually wanted to throw the phone off the table.

_"Wait",_ Haley breathed. _"She's... she's awake! She's just woken up!"_

"Emily?" The girl handed the phone to the agent, who was still holding her face in her hands. Her head ached awfully. She didn't know what had happened. Just woke up. It has been loud. Where was she?

"Emily!" Hotch on the phone. She had only heard him like this at occasional times. Serious times. Bad times. Lump in her throat.

_"Hey, Hotch..."_

* * *

They're ears were tingling, bells ringing, shock moment, confusion.

Chris grunted in frustration, when he missed. Morgan was still as strong as before, putting all his weight and power in the fight, using every chance to win, he didn't even flinch when the gun shot off. Instead he used the situation, the moment of surprise and reached for the gun, but instead of actually getting to hold it, he accidentally beat the gun out of his hand. It flew over the ground and landed a few feet away. He proceeded to fight, as the whale of a man wouldn't give up.

Reid stared at them for a moment, stared at the whole that had appeared in the wall behind Morgan, until he realized nobody was shot and so he actually followed his plan from before. Practically sticking to the wall, praying for nothing bad to happen to anybody, especially not to him or Morgan, he went on and on but out of nowhere the way seemed extremely long. He stopped. Wouldn't make it. Felt it. Turned around. It was so slow... As if he was underwater.

"Morgan..." He was too quiet. The TV was on full volume, he had no voice, the punching and fighting was already loud enough. Cleared his throat, or at least tried to do so. "Morgan, why-!"

Was it really so dark or were his eyes playing tricks on him?

The agent didn't look up to him. Of course not. "Get the-", Reid tried again, but even his legs wouldn't carry him anymore. "The gun, Morgan! The-" _Why don't you go down from him and get the gun?_

So he closed his eyes, hands on the wall and searched his way through the dark... once again. As fast as possible he went on, already around the corner. He would have to approach them from the other side and get the gun himself.

None of them wondered, where Max was.

Morgan had even heard Reid, knew that he wanted something, but he didn't understand a word, heard him saying... something, but he couldn't turn around now._ Man, Reid, I just can't, sorry, kid._

All of a sudden he got pushed over, falling to the ground hard, the air was forced out of his lungs, he saw stars, darkness, _damn it_ and before he could open his eyes again Chris had crawled over to the gun, stood up and aimed at Morgan now.

"DON'T FUCKING MOVE!", he screamed, simply because the agent turned his head around, reaching for it with his hand, now stopping in the movement, looking at him dazily. "Who are you?" His hands were shaking, it wasn't possible to tell if he was angry or scared.

Morgan didn't know what to say. In fact, he was lying there, having been snatched the last opportunity to fight, to defend himself, he was like a turtle on its back.

"I asked you, WHO YOU ARE!" The man got louder again, shaking the gun, unconsciously spitting blood. Morgan frowned.

"I'm with the FBI", he somewhen answered, calmer than he thought he was, noticing something moving in the background, in the dark. "Derek Morgan. Who are you?"

"You broke into my house", the man replied, not answering Morgan's question. "I thought you were thieves or something." His voice trembled.

That was just way too off. "Yeah, okay, look, I'm gonna move now, don't shoot -" Slowly he showed the insides of his hands, fumbled at his chest pocket, where his badge was. "Look, guy, here." Slowly he pulled it out, opened it. "Here you got the proof-"

Chris raised the gun again - _How many excuses can I try? How long can I put him on hold? How long can I control him?_ - "It's fake!"

"Look, sir, just - You see, I'm unarmed, okay?", Morgan tried again. "I'm not gonna attack you. Just let me stand up."

"NO!" Chris came closer, the gun dangerously shaking, dangerously near, aiming at Morgan's middle, what if he slipped, his hands were surely slippery and sweaty, what if he shoots by accident-

_Wait._

_There were two._ Morgan saw the look of confusion on the man's face, who uneasily glanced somewhere else. He shouted at him again. "Where is the other one, huh?" It was that moment that he realized the TV had been put on low volume. He had goosebumps on his neck. "Where did he go? Tell me!" Then Morgan saw him coming closer.

"I'm here."

It was just a second in which Chris turned around, his eyes meeting Reid's, who was pointing at his shoulder, just a part of a second in which he got shot, dropping the gun, holding his shoulder with pain on his face. Quickly Reid shuffled over, kicked the gun into the other direction and tried to stay away from him as far as possible.

Morgan finally got up, coming over in a heartbeat. "Found... our stuff", Reid explained short of breath, handing him handcuffs. Morgan forced Chris' hands behind his back with a lot of loud resistence, but finally he was locked in. A reassuring look at Reid, nodding, and then he led Chris into another room.

Reid gazed after them and exhaustly sat down on the ground, gun next to him, lying down on the scruff rug, on his side, but he didn't really care if it was dirty or... He was just so, so tired. The coughing was the worst. It still tasted like blood... Maybe he might tell Morgan about it, when he came back. He almost slept in, while listening to the lock being closed and his friend's steps approaching.

He just got suspicious when he felt someone else's presence, near, breath and movements, slimy and no, this wasn't Morgan, not at all. Shocked he opened his eyes, two thin, bony legs in front of him. He gasped, turning on his back again, looking up the body, in her lump clothes up to her shrunken face. It was wet and her eyes red. He backed off further, as fast as he could, but it wouldn't help in the end. She raised her hand, a syringe in it. Images in his head. His heart started racing, beating so loudly, he had no air.

_No, no, I don't want it._

He couldn't move. Thought of the gun but he couldn't move.

How could they have forgotten about her?

"Where- have you been?", Reid breathed. There wasn't exactly a lot of space to hide in this tiny house. Not on the hallway, cause Morgan and Chris had been fighting there, not in the living room cause he shot Chris himself from there, not in the sleeping room, cause Morgan had brought Chris there, so...

She looked at him, smiling confidently, when she saw him realizing it.

"Right. I was in the kitchen. With you."

He swallowed, shivering just at the thought, that- That she was with him and he hadn't noticed. _Absence of light._ His throat felt constricted.

"You've been a very, very bad boy", Max said, nodding. "Let's put you back to sleep, hm?" _No, no, no,_ he was screaming in his head._ Don't._ But she was faster, approaching his side, crouching down to him. _Hell, no._ "It's been your fault, she died."

She was absolutely mad, delirious, she had no idea what was going on, laughing crazily. The needle came closer. Liquid shimmering blue.

Without really thinking or planning Reid kicked against her legs, she slipped, falling into his direction, the dangerous top of the syringe coming nearer and nearer, he rolled away into the other direction, hopefully fast enough, eyes closed, in expectation of a sharp pain in his body, holding his breath.

It didn't come. Instead Max crashed into the ground. Something shattered. It was like she was breaking every bone in her body when she fell down.

Still surprised he was so lucky once for a change, he straightened up his back, bowing down to the ground, he felt so slow and heavy, his head pounded, _don't fall on your head,_ he touched the weapon and suddenly felt an increasing shooting pain in the back of his hand before he saw what happened. He would have almost throwed up if he wouldn't have been in this situation.

The syringe had broken, splitted into hundreds of pieces of fine glass and Max had taken one of them, pierced it into his hand and he wasn't sure of what sight made him more nauseauos, the inside of her hand cut and her clinging to the glass or his hand being... well, stabbed by a considerable big piece of glass.

Anyway, he backed off instinctively from the pain, stumbling backwards, to where he thought the exit door was, his hands behind him, reaching.

_Where is Morgan? Why didn't he show up? What's taking him so long?  
_

He couldn't even shout for him with his sore throat.

Max was up on her feet again, blood from her hand dropping onto the ground. She had stopped smiling. Instead she looked at him furiously now. She was just overall creepy. Everything was creepy. Her woozy hair and these crazed eyes and the blood and the darkness, the flickering image of the TV, her growling plus the things he probably exaggerated or imagined in his feverish mind.

His steps got faster, she started walking, almost relaxed, no hurry, nothing to worry, she walked past the gun, didn't recognize it or didn't need it, she was just plain angry at him, with plan on her mind. The piece of glass fell to the floor with a tingling sound.

Then he felt the door, the doorhandle, _push, pull, get out of here as fast as you can, Spence,_ for a moment he was in highschool escaping from the bullies, and he opened the door and turned around and stood in front of a white wall.

He shook his head. Was that a dream? How could that...?

"You can't get away." That voice gave him the creeps. The info gave him the creeps. "We're snowed in, honey."

Just another point on his list for why he didn't like snow.

He didn't want to look at her, but he had to, he had to get past her, into the house, away from her, he needed the gun and he finally did turn around and he held his breath and she stood there awkwardly, her back crooked, her head crooked and her eyes blazing and then she started running, hands to the front, on height of his neck and he could do nothing to prevent her from crashing into him.

The worst was the part when he actually broke into the snow; it was literally like being thrown through a wall. Reid could've sworn he broke through a layer of actual ice. He couldn't tell the difference, when it was cold or when it hurt because it was hard ice, it was just altogether, and the long fingers around his neck were just as ice cold as the snow, and actually the cold was burning, on his ear, his face, his neck, his head, his face in the snow, the snow wetting his thin clothes, invading, he was paralyzed, it was terrible, he couldn't breathe because of so many reasons - he felt like panicking, like dying and maybe he was even closer to it than he feared.

Then she was shot.

* * *

Pain is short and sharp and bright and loud and white and hot in my head.

It's getting warm.

It's getting cold.

I don't know.

It fades faster than I imagined. That's it, I guess. They got me. I'm gonna go.

Power leaves me. My hand loosens. Boy's looking at me with these big, damn eyes... Tears.

He's just so little... 10 years old... And he already killed, right? He killed my daughter...

Brown eyes...

I'm cold.

Maybe...

Maybe it wasn't really your fault after all, hm, honey?

Maybe I was wrong... You couldn't do it... You couldn't kill her, right?

I can't bother to care anymore.

You're so nicely warm...

* * *

He didn't realize someone had shot a gun until his ears rang, until Max grip got looser, until he felt the warmth, smelled the scent, until Max slumped on his body lifelessly. He panted for breath, choking on it and on snow, raised his arms, trying to push the body from his, lucky the bullet didn't get completely through her and hit him, when he heard Prentiss, just her voice, not what she said and then Morgan, and Max was lifted from him and he coughed and he was lifted, too, staggered to the couch, trembling, stumbling, laying down, everything was on mute and everything just blured into each other, but he saw their faces, shadowed, and they were here and they lived and he closed his eyes and he finally let go and drifted into sleep.

It was over.

* * *

"I can't believe I actually made that mistake", Morgan grunted, sitting down next to Reid. "Just forgot her." He shook his head. _And then she attacked._

"It's over now", Prentiss said, patting his hand comfortingly. She nodded in Reid's direction. "You know... The unsubs often tend to underestimate him. He's got the surprise effect on his side." Morgan smiled half-heartedly. "He really has... Emily, how are you? Are you okay? You wouldn't wake up, when I tried."

"It's just a little headache", she lied and he saw it, but no one mentioned it. "She gave me something."_ I just hope it's not addictive or deadly in the long view or something._ "I don't know, why... you couldn't. The first shot woke me up. And Haley had called the police with my phone."

"They must have forgotten to take it from you", Morgan assumed.

"Right... Lucky, hm? And I didn't even think of calling someone when _I_ was awake."

"Haley told me, you protected Mike."

"Least I could do." Morgan didn't answer.

"So... They'll be coming to get us as soon as the storm is over", Prentiss somewhen explained, pointing at the snow, the still open door. "Hotch said, they'd have arrived here long ago, if there wouldn't have been a blizzard. Our bad luck there... Anyways, I'll be going up to the children, cause..." She looked around, her gaze stopping when Max' turned around corpse was in sight.

"They don't need to come down and see this. And I'll call Hotch to tell him we're..." Regarding how they all felt and what happened to them she wanted to avoid terms like _fine_ or _good_.

Morgan nodded, understandingly. "... alive."


	9. Epilogue

There's still people alerting my story (or me but I'll talk about that later), especially new are supersoccersarah, Miss R. Hood and giderasia1 (I thought you were already here :D); just for that little chapter~ You're awesome, seriously *heart*

Here you are!

* * *

They had to wait until morning, four more hours, until they would be shoveled out of the Benetts' house.

Chris was brooding in the bedroom, slowly realizing he had no chance to get out of this. He was just as guilty as his now dead ex-wife, Max, had been.

Prentiss was watching Haley and Mike, talking to them, guarding over their sleep, getting a call from Hotch from time to time until her battery was empty.

Morgan had put on the lights in the basement and upstairs, put a blanket over Max' body, so he hadn't had to look at her anymore, walked around uneasily, not sure what to do with himself, watched Reid sleeping and waking up on the couch, calmed him down from his nightmares and was just overall there for him.

He almost got a heart attack, when he saw him coughing up the blood.

"Reid, what the hell is that?", he asked, almost shouting the question in beginning, lingering panic. Reid frowned, eyes almost shut, avoiding eye contact with the agent.

"Blood... I guess." He lay back down without anymore explanation. "How should I know... It's not so much..." He coughed a little more, drawing up the blanket up to his neck, already drifting of into a dream.

Knocking sounds on the wall. Rhythmic. Morgan looked up, shouting. Voices. Then a ray of light. They were finally found.

* * *

The reunion was as emotional as it could get and confusing and too short when Prentiss, Reid and Morgan, who had to be forced to, were taken to hospital to have an overall check.

Turned out all of them had mild concussions thanks to the unsubs.

Prentiss sat in hospital with a sprained ankle, bruises all over and more importantly the doctors had found traces of a moderate dose of paralyzers, which luckily wouldn't have long-term effects.

Morgan had to be taken care of mostly because of a severe wound on his head that he hadn't even noticed in the end. He got a patch on it that he hated cause it just looked ridiculous, so he refused to take of his hoodie for the next days. They also treated a deep cut on his lip and on his eyebrow and minor injuries from fighting.

Reid was the only one not to be awake when he got sent in - his cold had turned into pneumonia in a few days cause he didn't treat it, but medication promised good success against the infection, his fever had been lowed down and the coughing decreased. When Morgan told the hospital staff about the blood, he had to go through several physicals, barely awake, but in the end the doctor concluded, that there was no serious reason - the coughing all the time and no treatment to spare his lungs had led to tiny cuts in the mucosal which made themselves noticeable in the tissues. The cut on his hand had to be sewed and he had some big bruises on his back and other injuries pretty much everywhere, but he didn't know much of what happened to him in the hospital, cause he just slept through for almost three days.

Finally he woke up wearily to find a letter next to his bed and - déjà-vu! - Morgan smiling while eating his jell-o.

* * *

_A week later_

It was still snowing and Reid still didn't like it. He had spent the last days at home, ignoring the weather, reading books he had already read a hundred times, drinking coffee, sleeping a lot, writing letters to his mum and watching his favorite movies. Sometimes someone from the team came over to look for him, but he was okay now. Next Monday he could come to work again.

Actually he could have even come to the BAU this day, regarding how he felt, but Hotch had insisted on a break this long and wanted to hear no complaints.

He was reading a letter when a message came in on his mobile. He smiled. Answered.

_"Indian food sounds good. See you."_

He thought for a moment, wondering if he was becoming too personally attached, but then he decided to keep a nice memory and put Haley's letter back into the cupboard before getting ready.

* * *

_Hello, Mr., no **Dr.** Reid (Agent Morgan told me!)_

_I hope you can read this letter soon._

_You sleep a lot. Everytime I tried to visit you, you still didn't wake up. This is the last time I can come over, cause me and my parents will go to my grandma for some time. We're gonna have holidays._

_It makes me a little sad that I can't talk to you. And I have so many things to tell you, so I write you this._

_Don't think strange things about this, no matter how awkward it sounds while reading!_

_I'm sure you never planned that you landed in this room with me, but it just happened and it happened in time. Yes, it was perfect timing._

_I've been alone in there for days, you probably know best. I was so, so scared, like never before. I played their game to survive. I had to play my role. And I rarely got food or water. In the end I slept a lot. I could do nothing. I was really close to break. I wanted to give up._

_And you got thrown in here. To be honest, you looked really weak and scared. You slept and it didn't look like you were dreaming about nice things. I never expected to find that FBI badge on you._

_But you totally deserve it._

_It was like you were like me. I don't want you to have to remember it, but... You were like me, on your own, afraid, sick, but you never gave up, while I was about to. You even could make us escape! (Though I still didn't get the trick with the lock...) You fought the cold. You fought the dark. You saved us all. In time. Who knew what would have happened if we would have just stayed there for the rest of the night? If you and Morgan would have never went down the stairs?_

_You did it. And it may seem useless, cause these words come from me, a little girl who doesn't know anything, but in my eyes, you are a hero for overcoming the things you're afraid of and that's the bravest thing someone can do._

_Thank you so much._

_Haley_

* * *

Thanks, guys. That's it. :)

Just wow.

I had such a great time writing this story and now it's over. It's been a journey. The first multi-chapter fic to ever be finished by me, and it's even CM and, to be honest, it was tough, it was really difficult at times, but I did it and I wanna thank you for joining me :)

All the little mails I got through all this time, I still have saved them in my folders :D It's just overwhelming to see, that you like it. And I just imagine this stuff in my head, I'm watching a movie in my fantasy and I like it so much, that I try to form it into words, enjoyable chapters, so you can see it, too. It's just great.

Especially the author alerts/faves make me squeak, cause, you know, it's like you put faith in me that I'm capable of creating other, good stories and I hope to not fail your expectations!

My next plot bunny isn't grown up yet, but it's even more Reid-centric and involves a burning apartment, getting shot and other mysterious stuff~ Hopefully see you then :)

Love, Lexa


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